On the 11th of March, 2011, most of us woke up to the horrifying news that the north-east coast of Japan had been hit by a massive earthquake, one of the worst known to man. Registering 9.0 on the Richter scale, [the earthquake set off a 10m high Tsunami, caused a nuclear emergency and left thousand
On the 11th of March, 2011, most of us woke up to the horrifying news that the north-east coast of Japan had been hit by a massive earthquake, one of the worst known to man. Registering 9.0 on the Richter scale, the earthquake set off a 10m high Tsunami, caused a nuclear emergency and left thousands of people devastated.
Time and time again, the human spirit has proved indestructible in the face of destruction and despair and people in Japan are slowly trying to pick up the pieces and get back to the business of living and helping each other towards a normal life. The rest of the world must do whatever it can towards this end and no help or effort can be too small to count.
In an effort to lend a helping hand, in a perhaps small but meaningful manner, Asha came up with an idea of raising funds through an International Food Bloggers Auction for Japan. This Auction is a contributive effort by a small group of food bloggers across the world using their passion for food to raise funds the Japanese Red Cross Society to be used towards their earthquake relief work.
I am happy to be a part of this small group of food bloggers and each one of us has pledged various items which will be auctioned and delivered to the highest bidder. Details of the pledges are included below.
I am offering 2 boxes of my home-made Eggless Decorated Cookies, one each to two of the highest bidders for them. Each box shall contain one dozen largish decorated cookies, packed to ensure they reach their destination without breaking.
Due to restrictions in many countries regarding importing of food items and the prohibitive costs involved in shipping worldwide, I will be shipping the cookies only within India. However, you are more than welcome to bid for the cookies if you would like to gift them to your friends or family in India.
The auction will run live for a week from today (23rd of March, 2011 to the 10th of April, 2011) during which period readers may bid on as many items as they wish. Once the auction closes and the highest bidder is identified, that person will receive the item that he/she bid for and the bid amount will be donated to Japanese Red Cross in entirety.
We request and hope that you will join us in by bidding for a good cause, and help our friends in Japan by raising as much money as possible with this gesture. You do not have to be a food blogger to join us in this effort.
The Details of the Auction/ Bidding Procedure:
1\. The auction will run from the 23rd of March, 2011 to the 10th of April, 2011.
2. The auction will close at 12pm IST on 10th April, 2011 (and at12pm your time on 10th April, 2011 for bidders outside India). Highest bidders and bid amounts will be revealed in a post by April 12, 2011.
3. Bid entries are to be made using the Auction Bid Form.
4. The auction is open to all readers across the globe, though some items may be shipped only to certain parts of the world. Availability of items is as indicated in the Auction Bid Form.
5\. Bidding can be for one or more items. Multiple bids from the same bidder will be accepted and highest bid will be taken into account. Minimum and High bids for each item will be made available at the end of each day.
6. The winners will be asked to transfer the pledged amount through PayPal, which, will then be donated to the Japanese Red Cross Society via Google Crisis Response.
7\. Winners will receive their items within two weeks of the reveal post announcing the winners.
List of Items Pledged For Bidding At The Auction:
1. Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen – 1 box each of a dozen assorted Eggless Decorated Sugar Cookies to 2 of the highest bidders.
2. Asha of Fork Spoon Knife – Breakfast Basket with Homemade Granola with Fruits and Nuts, Orange Marmalade and Strawberry Jam.
3. Asha of Fork Spoon Knife – Peanut Goodies Basket, sponsored by Peanut Butter Co. Hamper includes 1 large picnic basket with 8 jars of a variety of peanut butters from Dark Chocolate Dreams to Cinnamon Raisin Swirl, 3 jars of fruit preserves and jelly, 1 jar of peanut pretzels and a Peanut Cookbook.
4. Liren of Kitchen Confidante – Afternoon Tea Basket, inspired by her husband’s family who spent 5 years in Japan. Also includes a freshly baked loaf of our family’s Buttermilk Banana Bread, a tin of Samovar Green Tea, and a few other Bay Area goodies.
5. Simone of Junglefrog Cooking – Traditional Dutch Basket with many Dutch food items like stroopwafels, Dutch Cheese, Muider schipperbitter which is a typical Dutch alcoholic drink and much more.
6. Trissa of Trissalicious – Signed copies of cookbooks from Australian cooking icons – Maggie Beer, Margaret Fulton and Stephanie Alexander.
7. Vanille of At Down Under – Kiwi Basket with 1 pot of NZ organic Manuka honey (J.Friend Co – 160g), 1 pot of NZ organic Kamahi honey (J.Friend Co – 160g), 1 bottle of Feijoa and limeblossom juiced tea (Teza – 325ml) and a reusable shopping bag (Ooid Design – 100% Organic cotton)
If you would rather not participate in this Auction by bidding but would still like to help Japan on to the road to recovery in some way, there are manyother ways of doing so. What is important is not how we help those who need it, but that we do make the effort.
Please feel free to help us let others know about this effort to help the Japanese people by tweeting about it on Twitter and posting on other social networking sites.
May I request, once again, your full support to this cause through your bids? If you do bid (using the form), please leave a comment at this post letting us know, so that we can keep track of all the bidders. Thank you.
Leave a Reply