Mega-food blogger Aimee Wimbush-Bourque of Simple Bites emailed me recently to say that, after meeting with another big blogger, they decided “blogging isn’t enough anymore. We want to use our platforms to help others, to do some good, to make a difference.”
So Amy contacted World Vision, and began raising funds for hunger relief in Kenya. She created recipe cards as part of a box of Kenyan products, which she promoted on Instagram.
She also mentioned that another Canadian mega blogger, Tara Brady of Seven Spoons, participated in an Empty Bowls fundraiser as a celebrity judge.
Food bloggers who help others is a big trend in Canda, it turns out.
I asked Melissa Hartfiel, co-founder of Food Bloggers of Canada (FBC), to tell me more about this trend. It turns out that FBC has helped make connections happen. “Canadian food bloggers have been ‘doing more’ for a very long time,” she wrote in an email.
She even knew how Aimee hooked up with the charity. “Dennis Prescott does a lot of work with World Vision,” she wrote. “His wife, Leanne, works for WV and I think that’s how Aimee got involved. The three of them met at our conference this past year. FBC did a program with WV this fall and facilitated new relationships with Toronto area bloggers.”
At my request, Melissa sent this list of more food bloggers helping others (although she hesitated to single anyone out for fear of missing so many):
- “FBC has been a tireless supporter of Food Revolution day and of getting kids in the kitchen. Honestly, I don’t know anyone who works harder than Mardi Michels to promote cooking skills to young children with her petite chefs program and all the community involvement. And it’s not just her. A big crew of Toronto area bloggers works with Food Revolution day and work with it all year long.
- “Meghan Telpner publishes an e-book every year through her Academy of Culinary Nutrition with recipes from her students. The proceeds go to charity. Last year I think she did Pencils of Promise.
- “Dan Clapson started the Start From Scratch program in Calgary several years ago. Calgary, Edmonton and Saskatoon food bloggers taught free cooking classes to first year university students to get them eating real food instead of boxed mac ‘n cheese.
- “Alberta is a hotbed of blogger community involvement. They do annual blogger bake sales for local charities and causes. Vancouver also used to do a lot of blogger bake sales. I remember participating in one for the Japanese Earthquake relief fund.
- “Many provinces across Canada have some kind of “below the line” program where they challenge local politicians and celebrities to live on a social assistance income for one month, or they’re allowed a food budget of a certain amount to live on for the month. Several food bloggers blogged about living on a small food budget for a month to raise awareness and show how you can eat healthy on a small budget. Jax from Cooking with Jax did a recent post.
- “FBC partnered with Toonies For Tummies, a school breakfast program. Many of the bloggers who partnered with them did so initially through FBC.
- “So many of our members teach community cooking classes. I couldn’t even count them all. Members in small towns are incredibly active, volunteering with local shelters or churches to help others. And the big city bloggers do it as well.
- “We’ve also worked with Foodbanks Canada over the years and encouraged our members to do so as well. We just partnered with MealShare, which works with the restaurant industry to provide meals for those who can’t afford them, mostly children.
So now American food bloggers, have you done projects like these or know other food bloggers who help others? Let’s not let the Canadians show us up, eh?
I’m still new blogging, but I would love to do some work helping others. It’s a great way to share our passion for food, with who need it the most. Great post! Thank you!
Welcome to blogging, Carlos. I hope you enjoy it. And it doesn’t seem difficult to find a charity to support through your work and passion.
Thanks Dianne for your fascinating recent posts introducing us to inspiring people and broadening our horizons. P.S. ❤️
Was supposed say I have very warm spot in my heart for Canada, land of my birth.
Me too. Did you notice the “eh” at the end of my post? That was an insider joke for Canadians.
Oh that is very sweet Anna. It’s is my pleasure, really. Just as fun for me as it is for you to read.
This is so sweet! Happy to see some names that I know. I haven’t done anything with profits to share, but years ago put together a free ebook of healthier school time recipes to help encourage healthier eating with kids. It was so rewarding and your post reminds me that I should do something more!
Very good! I look forward to hearing what you decide, Alisa. There’s no shortages of worthwhile beneficiaries, that’s for sure.
A-ha! I love those Food Bloggers of Canada and have an opportunity for food bloggers in the U.S. to help out a very deserving non-profit that I’ve been supporting behind the scenes for a while and just starting to help them amplify their mission with influencers online. If interested in learning more, please leave a comment here with my name in it or tweet at me @anneliesz
This is fantastic, Annalies. I’d love it if you said more about this organization.
Hi Anneliesz — Please tell me about that non-profit. Thanks!
Really inspiring. Bravo Canadian food bloggers. Shout out to Cook for Syria in London too – harnessing bloggers and Instagram influencers for good.
Cook for Syria is magnificent, Sally. Thanks for bringing it up. I see they’re launching in the US this year as well: http://cookforsyria.com/
I’m so encouraged by this article, Dianne. It’s been so hard in this climate to truly feel the value of my work as a food blogger until I realized that my platform is more than just about sharing recipes; it’s a community. In my little corner on the internet we give a portion of every purchase in the Not Without Salt shop to an organization called First Aid Arts. They provide trauma care through the arts around the world. Thanks for the work you do and always adding so much to the food blogging community.
Aha, Ashley! You are the first American blogger to tell me about a non-profit you’re working with. Thank you. What a terrific nonprofit. If anyone else is interested, here is the website: http://www.firstaidarts.org/
Otherwise, the Canadians are showing us up.
Diane,
Thank you for posting this! It reminded me to get in touch with an organization I’d expressed interest in volunteering for and we had let the conversation slide. Reconnected just in time to be assigned to an important project that is really worthwhile. Thank you!
Jennifer
That’s terrific news, Jennifer. I’m sure you’ll find it very satisfying.
Love the idea of giving back. My method is to share what I’ve learned over the years and mentor others. I started a Black Food Bloggers Club to address some issues of representation in food media. In the group, I work to create a supportive community. I am available to answer questions and give advice on blogging, design, tech and branding for the group (currently 200 members).
It’s been a roaring success and now I’m bringing on other volunteers to help grow the wonderful community.
It makes me so happy to see the members grow their confidence and skills.
Oh…and I’m Canadian. 😛
Score another one for the Canucks, Jasmine. You guys are way out ahead, according to the comments at least. How great that you that you have 200 members. I bet some of my readers would like to know about it.
When I first started blogging, a seasoned Canadian blogger gave me the best advice; balance your social media and blog content with charitable content. While this should be true in everyday life, not just in blogging, it feels great to be able to use the small amount of influence I have to help spread news for local charitable organizations. Many Calgary bloggers do much more than bakesales. Quite a few of us spend countless hours organizing various food festivals that benefit local charitable organizations such as YYCPoutineWeek (Mealshare), YYCTacofiesta (KidsUpFront & Calgary Homeless Foundation), YYCBurgerBattle (Kids Up Front and Grow Calgary) and YYCPizzaWeek (Meals on Wheels and 100 Men Calgary). These festivals raise thousands of dollars for our local charities.
How fantastic, Bernice, to do such satisfing volunteer work. You Canucks are showing up the Yanks big time! I love it.
I’m just getting started but giving back is at the core of my business. I’m a cooking instructor and I am working with Davis Community Meals in my hometown to teach cooking classes at low-income housing to families on food stamp budgets. I teach folks how to cook real whole food for less money: one skillet suppers, 5-minute breakfasts, and other healthy and affordable meals. It’s important to me to source all ingredients for the classes from the places that they shop so they are familiar and accessible. All food and leftover ingredients are given to participants.
I’m really excited to start collaborating with some local farms soon to provide fresh and local produce to teach with and gift to all participants.
Hi Sandra, great to hear from you. This sounds like great work. I especially like that you are sourcing ingredients from where your clients shop. Are you doing it as a volunteer?
Way back in the early days of blogging (2007, basically ancient history in Internet Time), there was a group of 50+ food bloggers in the San Francisco area that met in person now and then. We had some social events and did some charity work. One was a weekend morning at the San Francisco Food Bank, where we sorted huge crates of oranges (and later had lunch at a nearby restaurant). Another was a workday at the Alemany Farm in San Francisco, where we weeded, spread mulch and did other things requested by the farm manager (and later had a picnic lunch at the farm). (Details about both of these are on my blog, search for “food bank” and alemany.) There also used to be an annual raffle called “Menu for Hope” run by Pim of the now-dormant Chez Pim blog, where bloggers would donate home-made goods, tours, and other things, with the proceeds going charities like the UN World Food Program. In its 6 years of operation the event raised a few hundred thousand dollars.
Most of that 2007-era group stopped blogging for one reason or another — including the many of the organizers for the above activities. I don’t know if the current group of SF-area bloggers have social events or do charity work. It’s certainly possible — I don’t follow food blogs quite as carefully as I did in the early years. It seems to me that the 2007 era food blogs were much better connected, with lots of blog events like “Sugar High Friday,” “Weekend Herb Blogging,” “Is My Blog Burning?”
Wow, seven years ago, Mark! That was 2 years before I started my blog. I do remember Pim’s “Menu for Hope” event and thought it was a fantastic idea. There was also a list serve that Stephanie Stiavetti kept up so we could find out about events. Those were the days. I wonder why Canadian bloggers are still doing charity work, while we have stopped.
Another Canadian here!
My blog started because of the charitable work I was doing.
I make competition style gingerbread houses which are auctioned off for charity.
I am a filed editor for Taste of Home magazine and my fellow editors were wanting to see what I was creating. I was using Photobucket but it was just not the platform that I enjoyed so I started my blog back in 2010.
I am proud to say I have raised over $10,000 with flour & sugar!
Ultimately my dream is to scale that and create an event to raise money for the homeless in my area.
How fantastic, Redawna. Congratulations! You guys are beating the pants of the Yanks.
Absolutely! Additionally, once people know that you regularly blog about a cause (or causes), they will start to connect with you. One of the most important things that a blogger can do to get more work is to expand their network and get people talking about them.
This is a good point. Thanks for adding it!