Random Acts of Foodness

Here's this week's dose of good news about food.

• This school's vegetarian menu sounds amazing!
• On a semi-un-food related note, these JOYN Christmas stockings are amazing, support artisans in India and are adorable. 
• These 10 beautiful coffee mugs all support a charity.
• Learn about Story Company and fancy up your (or a friend or family member's) house, kitchen or wardrobe with some items to support creativity in Africa.
• This list has some great Thanksgiving-related stories. Dive in!

Happy Thanksgiving week everyone! I hope that this week (and every week) we can let food bring the people in our lives together and spread goodness around.

Random Acts of Foodness

Here's this week's dose of good news about food.

• We're in the last few days of Fair Trade Month. Here are 5 sweet ways to support and keep up with fashion fair trade companies by reading Grace's Fair Trade Friday updates on her blog.
• Speaking of fair trade, we just discovered Wild Ophelia chocolates this week. I like their business ethics just as much as I like their Peanut Butter and Banana milk chocolate bar.
• This doesn't necessarily have to do with food, but I got to hear the founder of LOVE146 speak at my church yesterday and they have an incredible mission to end child trafficking. Maybe you would like to get involved. 
• In need of a last-minute pumpkin for Halloween this week? Modern Farmer offers 7 tips for finding the best one!
• If you're a Northwest Arkansas-er, you have got to get a hold of a copy of the brand new edible Ozarkansas magazine. It's full of beautiful pages of local food news, recipes and features. Get a peek inside the mag from Lyndi.
• Here are some Halloween-inspired dishes to start your festive week out.

Are you planning on making any special treats for Halloween? I think I'm going to whip up some of this Hot Cocoa Popcorn.

Random Acts of Foodness

Here's another round of Random Acts of Foodness (aka good news about food) to start your week out on a positive, tasty note.

• Mellow Mushrooms in the NWA area are doing some cool things to help people out in the community (like hosting charity events and donating to the fight against hunger). Follow their Facebook Page to stay updated. 

• Heard about the Kitchn Cure 2013 and sad you missed out on this incredible organizing opportunity? Catch up on the 10 days of assignments here and you're on your way to a cleaner, happier kitchen.

• I can hear my grandmother saying "waste not, want not" right now.

• Some interesting insight into the international trail that our sugar consumption leaves.

• Although I didn't get to attend, I'm glad people in the community got to contribute to Apple Seeds Seeds that Feed sale!

Random Acts of Foodness

Here's another round of Random Acts of Foodness (aka good news about food) to star your week out on a positive, tasty note.

1. Talk about a win win for NWA locals- An Indian dinner to benefit Indian farmers.

2. Fashion + Bloggers + Travel + Helping people= BlogABLE is doing some really cool things. Read about this blogger's, What's Gaby Cooking, trip to Ethiopia with them.

3. It's No Kid Hungry Month! Here's how you can help and how Joy the Baker helped.

4. This week, I learned about NatureBox, a company that sends you a box of healthy snacks every month...and they're working to fight hunger and poverty.
(Enter Cup of Jo's NatureBox giveaway for a year of snacks and get $10 off your first box.)

5. And finally, fight those fall allergies with food!

Have a great week!

Random Acts of Foodness: Local Love

In this special edition of Random Acts of Foodness, I'm giving a little local love to some amazing companies that helped sponsor Arkansas Women Bloggers Unplugged, my first blogger conference that I just came back from! These sponsors stood out to me for their ability to influence communities, offer great products and give us some sweet swag (aka gifts). Please feel free to click on the links to give them some love on social media.

Random Acts of Foodness

Here's another round of Random Acts of Foodness (aka good news about food) to start your week out on a positive, tasty note.

1. It looks like Apple Seeds, Inc. is doing wonderful things for the youth of NWA. And I love seeing pictures of what they're doing in local schools on their Facebook page.

2. Similarly, Oregon is taking local foods in school seriously.

3. Interested in international foods as well as getting some recipes by renowned chefs? Check out this Share cookbook that supports Women for Women International's work to help women in war-torn countries.

4. Some things you probably didn't know about the people picking your produce.

5. Great advice for those who have thought about starting a community garden.

6. And because I love the Despicable Me movies, here's a very special, food-inspired minion.

Random Acts of Foodness

Happy Monday!

Here's another round of Random Acts of Foodness (aka good news about food) to start your week out on a positive, tasty note.

1. Potato Pickin'
Yesterday, Tri Cycle Farms here in Fayetteville had a "Potato Harvest" event from 7-10 am. Get updated on similar events in the future by liking their Facebook page. I definitely want to help out with something like this soon!

2. Gardening for Dummies
Here's a really cool Kickstarter project that needs some support from non-green thumbs like me.

3. AgFunder!
Speaking of Kickstarter, there's going to be a place soon where solely agriculture-based projects can get a boost.

4. Chicken-less eggs? They're real and may help our growing planet.

5. Aaaand food that looks like animals. How cute is this?!


Go spread the good news and have a great week!

Random Acts of Foodness

Here's another round of Random Acts of Foodness (aka good news about food) to start your week out on a positive, tasty note.

1. Help Squash Bees! Buy Organic!

2. A call to support local British agriculture through social media.

3. Like oatmeal and want to win a trip to Scotland? Enter the Spar for the Spurtle contest.

4. This seems like a great idea: Items you buy at Target go to help feeding hungry Americans.

5. Did you know that you can use SNAP (or food stamps) to buy fresh produce and plants at the Fayetteville Farmers Market? Here's a graphic that sheds more light on how many people the SNAP program serves.

Have a wonderful week!

Random Acts of Foodness

Here's another round of Random Acts of Foodness (aka good news about food) to start your week out on a positive, tasty note.

1. Cupcakes and Compassion: I love this story of how the owners of a local cupcake shop (Bliss) here in Northwest Arkansas are selling their business and moving to Malawi to help feed orphans.

2. How CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) are bringing the farmer and the consumer closer together.

3. Encouraging composting in NYC.

4. Sip and Give: Tea that supports a good cause.

5. How our soil can help us with our health.


Have a great week!

Random Acts of Foodness

Welcome to Random Acts of Foodness, a list of stories and events that are focused on food doing good in our world and in people's lives (thanks to my husband for the fun name idea). I hope that this list is an encouragement as you start out your week and gives you a healthy dose of good news!

1. How cool is this? A local couple, Scott and Julie, who used to go to my church raised money through donations and by selling homemade pound cakes to help send Scott to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota to help diagnose some neurological problems he has been having.

And they exceeded their goal! I love seeing how a community comes together to help each other out!

2. Did you know you can host a bake sale to help the No Kid Hungry movement? Pretty cool and you can follow this Twitter handle to see how they helped in Chicago.

3. Good news for bees!

4. Learn about the Cookies for Kids' Cancer movement.

5. I stumbled upon this inspiring story on the blog for Nature's Bakery (whose fig bars I wrote about recently). It reminds me a lot of the soccer program I get to help promote at Firefall International. (If the link on the story doesn't work at first, just refresh the web page.)

P.S. This might not be food-related, but if you need a Father's Day gift idea that does a lot of good, check Don't Buy the Tie out.

Happy Monday!