Chili Charities – Foodie Fun for a Cause

As Jay mentioned in our first Chili Cook Off post the International Chili Society (ICS) has raised close to $90 million dollars for charities since it began. This year the three charities that are benefiting from the cookoff are: The Greater Manchester YMCA, Families in Transition and the New Horizons Soup Kitchen. All of these organizations do wonderful work in the Manchester community and in this economy any opportunity to raise funds and awareness for a non-profit it very welcome.

On Saturday as we left the Welcome Center and headed for the front entrance we met Nancy Comai and Michelle Casale from New Horizons. As Michelle headed off to her volunteer post Nancy was more than happy to satisfy our interest in how the charity support aspect of the cookoff worked.

Charities in the area that the cookoff is being held responded to an RFP that is organized by the ICS. The charity must be willing to supply a minimum amount of volunteers to work the event for one of the days. Volunteers work in shifts between 7am and 8pm each day handling all manner of logisitcs tasks including ticket sales, trash collection, parking, information booths, etc. In return the charity receives $1 for each $5 ticket that is sold on that day. Based on the crowd that we saw on Saturday New Horizons had a very successful day.

Jay and I both agreed that it was fitting to have the proceeds from a fun food day go to an organization that supplies meals and shelter to those in need. Michelle was very happy to share information about New Horizons including the following:

• Out of the 900 school-children within walking distance of the New Horizons facility that receive free or reduced lunch, New Horizons would be feeding nearly 400 of them dinner per month by the end of they year.
• New Horizons typically serves approximately 200 meals per day.
• The food pantry provides pre-packaged food items to over 700 households each month.

As foodies we have the luxury of not only having enough to eat but also conveying our passions through our food. Not everyone is so lucky.

If you would like to donate to the New Horizons Soup Kitchen, Pantry and Shelter you can do so here:

http://www.newhorizonsfornh.org/donate/how_to_donate.php

Thank You

Margot and Jason