Would you like to win a food or wine prize, as well as feel good because you have given to a special charity? Then why not participate in the 2009 Menu For Hope!

Menu For Hope is an annual fundraising event in support of the UN World Food Program. It was started by Chez Pim about six years ago after the devastating tsunami that struck Southeast Asia. Each year, food and wine bloggers from all over the world participate in a big-ass online raffle, offering many food and wine-related prizes.

The raffle runs from December 14 to December 25 and we need YOU to participate and help make a difference.

This year, Menu For Hope is supporting a new initiative called Purchase for Progress (P4P). P4P enables smallholder and low-income farmers to supply food to WFP’s global operation. P4P helps farmers improves farming practices and puts more cash directly into their pockets in return for their crops. This will also help local economy by creating jobs and income locally.

Donors can make an online (tax deductible) donation with a credit card. FirstGiving collects and processes the payments and, at the end of the campaign, transfers the donations in one lump sum to the WFP. This is a win-win situation for all parties involved. The bloggers never touch the money.

How does it work?

People from all over the world join the campaign by offering an array of food-related bid items for the Menu for Hope raffle. For every $10 donated, you earn one virtual raffle ticket to bid on the item of your choice. You designate which prize you want your “ticket” to go for, and then a computer program gives you that many chances to win.

You can bid on this fantastic All-Clad Stainless-2 Qt. Sauce Pan i’m donating (valued at $140) using Prize Code UE33. I will sprinkle it with some Zen-ness so everything you do in it turns out delicious and ship it to the winner. Anywhere in the world!

And you can bid for all sorts of other cool stuff by following these easy instructions:

1. Choose a prize or prizes of your choice from our Menu for Hope at http://www.chezpim.com/blogs/2009/11/mfh6main.html. Pay special attention to the prize codes. You’ll need them when you donate.

2. Go to the donation site at http://firstgiving.com/menuforhope6 and make a donation.

3. Please specify which bid item you’d like in the ‘Personal Message’ section in the donation form when confirming your donation. You must write-in how many tickets per bid item, and please use the bid item code. Each $10 you donate will give you one raffle ticket toward a bid item of your choice. For example, a donation of $50 can be 2 tickets for EU01 and 3 tickets for EU02 – 2xEU01, 3xEU02.

4. If your company matches your charity donation, please check the box and fill in the information so we could claim the corporate match.

5. Please check the box to allow us to see your email address so that we could contact you in case you win. Your email address will not be shared with anyone.

6. Check back on Chez Pim on January 18th for the results of the raffle.

Tags: Menu for Hope