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Share the Bounty Feed the Hungry


Classic Tuna Noodle Casserole
Easy Brownie Torte
Chicken & Rice Casserole

Share the Bounty

(Robin Kline/Family Features) - Americans are inventive and generous when it comes to helping others. From our barn-raising, lend-a-hand roots to today's walking to raise funds for disease research, we show up to help those in need. Helping fight hunger in your community is easy, fun and rewarding, and it makes a difference.

Food activist Frances Moore Lappe, author of Diet for a Small Planet and World Hunger: Twelve Myths, says, "We say that we're just a drop in the bucket, and that's meaningless. But wait a minute. If you have a bucket, those raindrops fill it up very fast. Being a drop in the bucket is magnificent. People everywhere are creating a bucket of hope. And so our drops are incredibly significant."

Be a drop in the bucket and play a part in stopping hunger in your community. There's a role for everyone — choose one or more of these suggested activities, and check out the national networks that bring muscle to the fight. Individual efforts, multiplied, spell hope for ending hunger.

Photos courtesy of America's Second Harvest and Harvesters,
The Community Food Network of Kansas City, Missouri

Community Caring Initiatives Community Caring Initiatives
Hope: Ordinary people doing extraordinary things

Host a benefit potluck
Share fellowship and break bread while raising resources. Ask for a free-will cash donation or a donation of nonperishable food items.

Sponsor a sweets auction
Bake sales work! Turn up the volume a notch and host an evening event, with an auction of pastry art donations from talented cooks in your town.

Create an edible landscape
While snow is still on the ground, plan a personal or community garden that could supply fresh produce for the hungry in your town.

Make a dish, share a dish
Making two batches of lasagna or other hearty casserole is not much more work — freeze one to take to a local homeless shelter.

Stage a game night
Fight winter cabin fever. Host a games-and-dessert party; invite the neighborhood and ask for a donation for local hunger programs.

Donate a meal
As a family, opt to make your own pizza on Friday night and put aside the cash you might have spent on pizza out; donate to a hunger program.

Become a savvy shopper
When "most wanted" items like canned fish, meat, peanut butter or pasta are on sale, pick up an extra or two to donate.

Bake "cookies for caring"
Many kids and teens love to bake. Encourage children or a youth group to bake cookies for local feeding programs. Make regular "cookie donations."

Adopt an agency
Encourage youth clubs and congregations to "adopt" a local food pantry by raising funds and food for it.

Clip some coupons
Clip coupons for groceries, personal care items, fast food and pizza for distribution at local shelters.

Designate a monthly food drive
Declare one Saturday a month as food drive day: Ask your friends, congregation, club or community to pick up a few extra nonperishable items for donation to the food bank.

Share recipes
When sponsoring a bake sale or hosting a potluck, offer recipes for featured dishes and baked goods as "part of the package." Or, collect recipes for dishes that are established community favorites and publish a booklet for sale.

National Networks National Networks

Here's a sampling of hunger relief networks to explore:
  • Supported by American corporations like Campbell's Soup, General Mills and Nestle USA, America's Second Harvest (www.secondharvest.org) provides emergency food assistance to more than 23 million hungry Americans through a variety of hunger-relief programs. One Big Table, a Second Harvest initiative, promotes local fund-raising potluck dinners and also sponsors a virtual potluck on its Web site for donating funds online.Food Network and Share Our Strength (www.strength.org), along with many corporate partners, sponsor The Great American Bake Sale (www.greatamericanbakesale.org), a groundbreaking program aimed at ending childhood hunger in America.
  • Feeding the hungry is just a click away at www.thehungersite .com, which with the help of many vendors donates food to those in need here and around the world. The Hunger Site encourages everyone to "click every day" to donate food, and links to vendors who make donations for every purchase made.

Use all-time favorite recipes like these for your fund- raiser, potluck or bake sale:

Classic Tuna Noodle Casserole Classic Tuna Noodle Casserole

1 can (10 3/4 ounces) Campbell's Cream of Celery Soup or 98% Fat Free Cream of Celery Soup
1/2 cup milk
1 cup cooked peas
2 tablespoons chopped pimiento (optional)
2 cans (about 6 ounces each) tuna, drained and flaked
2 cups hot cooked medium egg noodles
2 tablespoons dry bread crumbs
1 tablespoon butter or margarine, melted

PREHEAT oven to 400°F.

MIX soup, milk, peas, pimiento, tuna and noodles in 1 1/2- quart casserole.

BAKE 20 minutes. Stir.

MIX bread crumbs with butter. Sprinkle on top. Bake 5 minutes or until hot. 4 servings

Courtesy of Campbell Soup Company

Easy Brownie Torte Easy Brownie Torte

1 package (1 pound 5.2 ounces) Betty Crocker chocolate chunk or triple chocolate chunk brownie mix
1 tub (15 ounces) Betty Crocker Pour & Frost chocolate frosting
1/2 cup coarsely chopped chocolate-covered peanut butter cup candies

PREHEAT oven to 350°F. Line 13 x 9-inch pan with foil so foil extends about 2 inches over sides. Spray foil with cooking spray.

MAKE brownies as directed on package for 13 x 9-inch pan. Cool completely, about 1 1/2 hours.

REMOVE from pan by lifting foil; peel foil away. Cut brownie in half lengthwise.

MICROWAVE frosting as directed on tub; pour half of frosting over one half of brownie. Place other half of brownie on top; pour remaining frosting on top, allowing some to drizzle down sides. Sprinkle with candy.

REFRIGERATE 30 minutes. Store loosely covered. 8 servings
High Altitude (3500-6500 feet): Follow High Altitude package directions.

Courtesy of General Mills, Inc.

Chicken & Rice Casserole Chicken & Rice Casserole

2 cups cooked rice
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1 1/2 cups cooked, chopped chicken breast meat
1 can (12 fluid ounces) Nestle Carnation Evaporated Milk
1/2 cup finely chopped red onion
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro
2 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
1 tablespoon diced jalapeños
Salt

PREHEAT oven to 350°F. Lightly grease 2-quart casserole.

COMBINE rice, cheese, chicken, evaporated milk, onion, eggs, cilantro, butter and jalapeños in prepared casserole; stir well.

BAKE 45 to 50 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Season with salt.

For freeze ahead: PREPARE as above; do not bake. Cover; freeze for up to 2 months. Thaw overnight in refrigerator. Uncover. PREHEAT oven to 350°F. BAKE 60 to 70 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Season with salt. 4 servings

Courtesy of Nestle USA, Inc.

SOURCE: Family Features Editorial Syndicate

 



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