When I take a look at the list of participating restaurants, it’s no surprise to see many of them on there. I know that many of these restaurants are the ones that support our local food producers, help to raise funds for food banks, and probably also donate their time, money and resources to other local charities. If you choose to dine out at one of these restaurants Thursday night, you’ll not only be raising funds for autism, you’ll also be supporting the restaurants that truly get involved with and support their communities.

You’ll also be giving a show of support to a couple of South Jersey’s faithful local foodies and bloggers, John and Lisa of Eating in South Jersey. John wrote about the event last week and shared with readers why this event is personally important to his family.

As you’re planning for your Thanksgiving, remember to buy local whenever and wherever you can. Let’s give our local producers a last shot of financial support before many of them go into hibernation for the winter.

A few things you might be interested in knowing about:

• The Food Bank of South Jersey is opening up its wear house in Pennsauken for direct donations of food this Saturday, November 19th. Their need is great, so if you can’t get there to donate food, you can always make an online monetary donation to help offset the costs of the busiest time of the season for the food bank.
• The Down Home South Jersey blog compiled a list of wines from SJ wineries to go with the different dishes and courses of your Thanksgiving meal. Thanksgiving is a great time to introduce your friends and family to local wines. Whether your hosting or a guest, there’s bound to be someone at dinner that’s unaware that our wines are great.
• Remember last month when I was doing some reviews of local cheeses, and I mentioned that one of the cheese stands at The Reading Terminal Market had told me they stopped carrying local cheeses because the quality wasn’t there and they cost too much? Well, take this, snooty cheese stand: Lawrenceville’s Cherry Grove Farms (whose Herdsman cheese I reviewed) had their Toma cheese selected as one of 17 finalists out hundreds of cheeses in the National Good Food Awards. Congratulations Cherry Grove Farms!
• With next week’s hustle and bustle, a slow cooker meal early in the week could be just what you need. Over on MNN, I have a recipe for Slow Cooker White Bean and Kielbasa Stew that my whole family loved. If you’re going to the Collingswood Farmers Market this weekend, stop by the Hillsacre Pride table and buy some kielbasa form them if you’re planning on making this.
• New Jersey lawmakers might soon be deciding on a raw milk bill in our state. If raw milk is something you’re interested in, you’ll want to read this piece on Newsworks.
• Asbury Park Press has the obligatory pre-Thanksgiving piece on New Jersey’s cranberry crops. In case you didn’t know, we’re the third largest cranberry producing state.
• The Garden State Wine Growers Association will host their Holiday Wine Trail on November 25, 26, & 27.

I had the opportunity to witness and photograph the first lady, the White House chefs, and students from local D.C. schools at the fall harvest of the White House kitchen garden.

What a week! The sun finally came out. I spent Wednesday at The White House getting an up-close and personal look at the kitchen garden, the kitchen, Michelle Obama at the fall harvest, and had quite a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I’m the featured blogger today at Blog for Family Dinner. And, there is no soccer this weekend, so I’ll be able to relax a bit and enjoy the gorgeous weather.

I did have a full week’s worth of blog posts planned for you this week, but that unexpected trip to Washington, D.C. turned my week upside down (not that I’m complaining). I didn’t want to end the week without a few odds and ends, though.

• The Cape May Wine Festival is this weekend. The beautiful weather this weekend will make it a perfect trip to Cape May to enjoy some of our state’s great wines.
• If you’re hitting the wine festival on Saturday, you might also want to stop by West Cape May’s Annual Lima Bean Festival. It begins at 9am so stop by there first before hitting the wine festival.
• Velenzano Winery in Shamong started construction of a new solar panel system at the vineyard off Route 206 as part of their goal to eventually use 100% renewable energy. Good for them!
• Food Day is a new national day that’s meant to spread the word about safe, healthy food. I wrote a bit about for Mother Nature Network, and the city of Philadelphia is turning the day into two whole weeks of activities.
• Sesame Street is addressing food insecurity with a primetime special this Sunday evening. They’ll be introducing a new muppet, Lilly, whose family is facing hunger.
• The Barrington Harvest Festival is tomorrow, and Grace Bible Church will have a drop off point where food can be donated. The food pantry at the church services people in Barrington and surrounding communities who are in need of help.
• Sharrott Winery is also a drop off place during the month of October for food donations that will go to the Food Bank of South Jersey.
• And one last place to donate food, at the Collingswood Farmers Market, the Friends of the Farmers’ Market (FOFM) is taking “canned good” donations for the St. Paul’s Food Pantry, sponsored by St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Collingswood. The term “canned goods” is only a limited description of the items needed that can make a difference.

Enjoy this absolutely beautiful weekend

My boys, ages 9 & 11, and I will be helping to sort food in the warehouse and perhaps helping out at some special events, too. The food bank welcomes children 8 and older to volunteer. If you’d like to volunteer, there is another volunteer training July 13, 2011. You can read all about the opportunities for volunteers and find contact information on the food bank’s Get Involved page.

The Food Bank of South Jersey services 100,000 people in our region, and 37,000 of those people are under the age of 12. I hope that after we’ve been involved with the food bank for a while that my boys will not only feel good about being able to help others, but they will also get a sense of how fortunate our family actually is.

Do you have any summer service projects lined up for you and your family?

Book One

Oran Hesterman’s new book, FAIR FOOD: Growing a Healthy, Sustainable Food System for All, is an enlightening and inspiring guide to changing not only what we eat, but how food is grown, packaged, delivered, and sold. The dates for this book are: 6/29, 7/13, 7/27, and 8/10. Discussions start at 7:30pm. To register for the Fair Food book discussion group click here.

Book Two

Serve God, Save the Planet by Matthew Sleeth, MD is a groundbreaking environmental book that presents the caretaking of earth as a biblically supported Christian mandate. Although Dr. Sleeth delivers his environmental message from a Christian point of view, this is a book which will serve all readers, regardless as to their religious affiliation or personal causes. The dates for this book are: 7/6, 7/20, 8/3 and 8/17. Dicussions start at 7:30. To register for the Serve God, Save the Planet discussion group, click here.

I reviewed Serve God, Save the Planet a couple of years ago for Sustainablog. It was one of the books I read early on in my green journey that was a game changer.

However, I did want to mention this to you since many of us are planting our vegetable gardens right about now. I came across a website called AmpleHarvest.org. You need to check the whole site out, but here’t he jist of it. Food pantries can register on the site to let you know they accept fresh produce from gardeners. Gardeners can search by zip code for pantries near them. You can take your extra garden produce and donate it to people in need. Simple, brilliant, and so incredibly important.

Now that we have an easy way to find sources to donate to, I say we all plant a little extra this year with the intent to donate. What do you say? Are you with me?

Participating in Stamp Out Hunger is simple. Just search your pantries for shelf-stable, non-perishable food, fill up a bag or two with these groceries and then place the bags next to your mailbox. Items will be donated to the Food Bank. As the economic downturn has taken a toll on the underserved population, the Food Bank of South Jersey’s goal is to distribute 12 million pounds of food.

Here are some quick stats about who the Food Bank helps:

• 39 percent are households with school-age children
• 9 percent are elderly
• 38 percent are households that include at least one employed adult
• 73 percent are households with incomes falling below the federal poverty level
• and 3 percent are homeless.

One last thing, if you’re hitting the farmers markets that are opening this week, and your budget allows this, how about grabbing a can or two of the Jersey Fresh Tomatoes or a bottle of local honey – help out your neighbors in need of food and your neighboring farmers at the same time.

Please don’t think that if you can’t go to the store and grab all these items that I’ve suggested that you can’t participate. If all you can give is one can of soup or one box of cereal, please do it. Any donation is helpful.

If you look at the map to the left, you’ll notice some areas that are shaded in pink. Those areas are considered food deserts in New Jersey – The Garden State. The map is a screen shot taken from the new USDA Food Dessert Locator. If you go to the  USDA’s website, you can actually click on those pink spots and statistical information will pop up about the number of people with low access to good food in the area and more.

It’s difficult to comprehend that in our state brimming with such great produce, we have food deserts. But, take Cumberland County for example. It’s a county with a lot of farmland, but 4,1o6 people there live in a food desert. But just because there is farmland surrounding the towns, it doesn’t mean the food is getting into the towns.

I’m not sure what to make of all this statistical data or how to help get fresh produce, whole grains, low-fat milk and other healthy foods to these people. Readers, any brilliant ideas?

You probably know about the Philadelphia Soul Arena Football League (AFL) that he invested in several years ago, but did you know that along with that football team came a philanthropic organization, the The Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation? The foundation’s mission is to “combat issues that force families and individuals into economic despair,” and the foundation places a big emphasis on doing that in the Greater Philadelphia Region (that would include us).

One of the foundation’s latest efforts, and this is so incredibly cool, is the Soul Kitchen in Red Bank, NJ. The Soul Kitchen is a pay-what-you-can community restaurant. No one is turned away because they can’t pay. There’s a suggested donation of $10, and those that can afford more are encouraged to “pay it forward” and give a little more. Those that can’t pay, can work in the kitchen if they’d like, but it’s not a requirement.

The video below talks about how “fresh food with vegetables grown in The Garden State” will be on the menu at The Soul Kitchen.

Looks like another thing to put on my Foodie Field Trip list.

The "carnage" at our table from last year's Mac Off. Everything was so good.

On Monday, January 17th, join South Jersey Culinary Events, Chef Mark Smith from The Tortilla Press, and 10 other chefs who plan to turn Macaroni & Cheese on its ear at the Mighty Mac & Cheese Battle of the Chefs. The “Mac Off” will be held at the Collingswood Community Center.

Chefs from the local independent restaurant community will be cooking up their own style Mac and Cheese for their Martin Luther King Day of Service! Tastings of Mac & Cheese in a whole variety of ethnic cuisines – Mexican, Cuban, Italian, Indian…and good old American style! Proceeds will benefit the Food Bank of South Jersey.

Event begins at 6pm.
$10/adult and $4/child
Tickets will be available at the door

Need more details?
Call the Food Bank of South Jersey, 856-662-4884, ext 133.

My family and I attended the first Mac Off last year along with John and Lisa from Eating in South Jersey, and it was a lot of fun. All of our kids loved it, and we were impressed with the variety and quality of the offerings.

The event will kick off South Jersey Culinary Event’s Homestyle Classics Week. The week runs from January 25 through January 28, and $30 4 course “comfort food” menus will be available at participating restaurants.