Full Circle Associates

Last year I blogged about the "Menu for Hope" effort of a beautiful circle of food bloggers to raise money for Tsunami relief. Well those fantastic folk are back at it - a great community indicator - with Menu for Hope II, this time for Pakistani quake relief. Check it out on host blog, Chez Pim. A Menu for Hope II:

"Welcome to the second annual A Menu for Hope campaign. As another year of our blogging adventures draws to a close, and as we are preparing to celebrate the holidays with our families and friends, we would like to take advantage of the season to ask you –our kind readers- for a little favor. Last year, we raised a substantial sum to support the victims of the Tsunami in Southeast Asia. This year, a group of us food bloggers would like to ask our readers -that would be you- to help us raise funds to support the victims of the devastating earthquake in the Kashmir region of India and Pakistan.

But what fun would it be just to come begging you for some dough, even if it is for a great cause? So, in order not to turn our otherwise fun blogs into the PBS pledge break bore, we've put together a huge list of cool, fun, and personal gifts -like only we could- to entice you to donate. Each of those gifts is offered as a virtual raffle prize. All you have to do is donate $5 and you will be eligible for the raffle drawing for a gift of your choice.

On our menu this year is everything from a chance to have an afternoon tea with the one and only Clotilde of Chocolate and Zucchini, to a personalized Napa Valley itinerary created by über-wine blogger Alder of Vinography, to a chance to b"

What is so astonishing here, well, not astonishing, HEART WARMING is that all these people, most of whom only know each other online, are responding with such generosity. And for a $5 buck donation, you have a great chances at something yummy and wonderful. Better yet, if we keep blogging about this, maybe our chances of getting something will diminish and there will be TONS MORE raised for the quake relief. Hop on over the Chez Pim and chip in.

And remember, if anyone tells you that online community is not real community, tell them they are WRONG!