Fundraising

Please join CulinaryCorps alum and Natural Gourmet Institute graduate, Celia Lam, for the August 15th installment of NGI’s Friday Night Dinner series, a 3-course vegetarian/vegan dinner cooked by the students. Part of proceeds of will be donated to CulinaryCorps and our 2014 Camp Sunshine trip. The menu is not yet available online but it is sure to be creatively delicious.

Tickets are $48.99 for the public (a bit less for alumni and students) and are available online HERE.

Hope to see you soon!

We’ve been fortunate to have a lot of wonderful and slightly offbeat fundraising events over the years, from our Cold Brew coffee stand at Farm Aid; to our highly-competitive gumbo cook-off; to a “gourmet all-you-can-eat nacho bar” extravaganza hosted by two of our alums in Chicago. However, gathering, cooking and serving what others have already thrown away (or are about to) is an idea that never crossed our mind. Until this week!

Celia Lam, a recent Natural Gourmet Institute graduate and current chef-volunteer for our 2014 trip, recently hosted a “Dumpster Dine” in Brooklyn serving her guests an incredibly complex vegetarian meal from perfectly great ingredients (that just happened to find their way into the trash.) Eighteen guests dined al fresco in a specially constructed outdoor dining table crafted from a (scrubbed clean!) dumpster.  With hanging bulb lights and green tea lights for ambiance, the overall effect was transporting as well as though-provoking. Just how much perfectly good food do we throw away each day? What can we all be doing to make sure the food we buy is put to good use? Best of all, the proceeds from this Salvage Supperclub event will be donated to CulinaryCorps. A win for the environment, a win for the diners and a win for us too. All in all, a perfect night, even it was spent in an oversized trash can.

Last October, Amazon.com introduced Amazon Smile, an amazing charitable-giving program that automatically contributes .5% of your total purchases to a non-profit of your choice. To get started, simply use the link below.

By shopping Amazon.com on our behalf, you’re helping CulinaryCorps deliver on our culanthropy mission. Thank you!

Back in November, we set a goal of $8,000 to raise as a team to help fund trip costs including lodging, supplies and donations to local project partners. Our chefs have dreamed up some amazing fundraising ideas, including BBQs, bake sales and Puerto Rican-themed tasting menus. And our Ray Ban outlet friends, families, colleagues and supporters have been wonderfully generous.  A thousands thanks to them all!

However, with only days to go, we are about $1,500 short of our goal!

ANY contribution can make a difference and help keep us going to plan future trips to targeted communities including Mississippi, New Orleans, Rwanda and Haiti. [To view our response on the recent disaster and our role, please click HERE].  We realize this may be a hard time to give but sending us your well-wishes and support works for us too!

To donate, please visit our online donation portal.

CulinaryCorps is 100% volunteer run, and all donations go directly to planning and launching our trips. Donations are http://www.raybanoutletit.com/ collected via our fiscal sponsor, FJC.

$2, $10 or $25 really does make a difference. Thank you!

From the New York Times Magazine – Food Fights!
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Written by Adam Fisher

Culanthropy: Two years ago, the New York City chef Christine Carroll was painting a New Orleans high school with a post-Katrina volunteer group when she realized that she was no painter. But she could cook; so could everyone she knew. And New Orleans needed nourishment. Once home, she started cheap oakley sunglasses organizing CulinaryCorps, a charity that recruits squads of chefs and culinary student for weeklong trips to New Orleans, where they might be asked to cook dinner for a Habitat for Humanity crew one night and the still-stoveless residents of the Lower Ninth Ward the next.
Mornings are spent volunteering: teaching elementary-school kids about growing vegetables or helping to recover flood-damaged cookbooks from venerated restaurants. The focus is not just on feeding the hungry but also on keeping the city’s food traditions alive. “We give them our version of shrimp and grits, and then http://www.oakleyonorder.com/ when they come back for seconds, they share their secret family recipes,” says Carroll.

Of the 75 chefs who have gone through the program, two have moved to New Orleans to make culinary philanthropy — or “culanthropy” – a full-time project. Next year, Carroll says, she hopes to take her Sauciers Sans Frontieres idea to places like Appalachia and Puerto Rico.

Dear CulinaryCorps Donor,

The fourth CulinaryCorps trip to New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast has just returned from their week of “culanthropy” in the city and beyond. The week was an incredible Ray Ban outlet amalgamation of cooking, learning and connecting. And although we have all returned to our homes exhausted, we are proud to have contributed to the widespread recovery efforts.

As always, the success of this trip relied on three core actions:

1. The dedication of our volunteer cooks

2. The soul-warming hospitality of our community project and event partners

3. And donations from people like you! Without your monetary help, CulinaryCorps would not have been able to…

…Create a fundraising “Brunch Without Borders” for the Holy Angels Farmers Market, the only source of fresh produce in the Upper and Lower Ninth Ward. The menu included Heuvos Rancheros using market fresh cilantro pesto, sweet potato rostis, spiced crepes with Praline sauce and lots of local citrus….

Annie S. and Chris C. work on the Spiced
Crepes with Praline Sauce

…Design and launch the “St. Rose Holiday Food Fest”, in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. The evening welcomed nearly two hundred hungry guests gathered to thank their local http://www.raybani.com/ volunteers working tirelessly through the St. Rose Outreach and Recovery initiative to rebuild homes in the area. Extra revenue was created through the sales of our cookbook, “From Our Kitchen to Yours”, a collection of the recipes executed that evening….

The efforts of the St. Rose Outreach Initiative
have helped put dozens of residents back into
their homes.

…Feed three hundred Habitat for Humanity volunteers at Camp Hope, the housing facility hosting thousands of volunteers dedicating time to build homes from the ground up across the city. We once again had the opportunity to work side-by-side with an incoming AmeriCorps NCCC kitchen crew, teaching these amazing young volunteers how to cook in large quantities and put a little bit of love into every bite.

Deb F., Duke A. and NCCC volunteers getting ready
to deep fry oysters, generously donated by
P&J Oyster

…Lead the third grade class at Samuel Green Charter through an “Edible Scavenger Hunt” at the Crescent City Farmers Market in conjunction with The Edible Schoolyard NOLA…

Donovan and second time CulinaryCorps
volunteer Lamont S. discover
edible wonders at the market.

…And then turn those ingredients into a beautiful meal in the classroom!

A busy Samuel Green cook

…Learn first-hand about the history of one of the city’s oldest restaurants, Antoine’s, by cleaning and archiving memorabilia damaged in the storm under the guidance of The Southern Food and Beverage Museum…

Maria N. sorts through old
menus in Antoine’s
Japanese Room

…Co-design the menu specials at Cafe Reconcile Occhiali Ray Ban outlet alongside their students – a talented group of budding young cooks. The dining room filled up and the Cubano Sandwich sold out!

Third time volunteer and co-leader
Viviana A. with a budding chef

…and connect with the food, the chefs, the stories, the foodways, the recipes and the fate of Louisiana and Mississippi. In the end, your dollars went further than you’ll ever know.

Thank you for your generosity to CulinaryCorps and please remember that our work has just begun.

With warmth and thanks,

Christine, Founder

In these few weeks before the trip, we are trying to raise a $375 for a professional scholarship. These funds will allow a cook who otherwise cannot afford the trip the Gafas Ray Ban outlet chance to join us for the week in New Orleans and the MS Gulf Coast. $5, $10, $100…donations of all shapes and sizes are welcome! Thanks for contributing to the chance of a lifetime. Click HERE for donation information.

A huge thank-you to everyone who made it out to last night’s “Red Beans and Rice” Fundraiser at DBA. Together with our on-line fundraising drive, we have raised quite a tidy sum which will be turned into project partner donations while we’re down in New Orleans from June 1-8.

The competition was fierce but friendly cheap oakley sunglasses and in the end, the most traditional of all the entries pulled ahead.

Congratulations LR for winning the hearts and stomachs of our discerning judges. And even more thanks for sharing your secrets with us…ham hocks, starting the day before, Esposito’s handmade sausage and of course, love. Spoken like a true New Orleanian.

Enjoy your spoils…a class at ICE, a gift set from OXO and one of the best t-shirts we’ve ever seen. And for all of you who couldn’t join us but would like to contribute, visit our on-line fundraising page by clicking the icon below.

Thanks and see you at the Second Annual Red Beans and Rice Competition next year!

You are cordially invited to be a guest judge at the…

FIRST ANNUAL
RED BEANS AND RICE COMPETITION

 

Monday, May 14th from…

6pm-8pm at…

DBA New York (41 First Avenue).

$20 per person (tax-deductible). Includes…

A free beer…

A vote in the competition and

A chance to win some wicked cool door prizes like

Dinner for two at Houston’s and

Pickled okra.

So come enjoy the dish Louis Armstrong made famous and…

Sir Mix-a-lot made infamous.

 

TASTEFULLY BROUGHT TO YOU BY:
CulinaryCorps and The Institute of Culinary Education (ICE)
WITH GENEROUS DONATIONS FROM:
DBA New York, OXO, The Hillstone Group, Union Square Hospitality Group, ICE
IN SUPPORT OF:
The CulinaryCorps/ICE June Outreach Trip to New Orleans, LA
WITH SPECIAL GUEST
Elizabeth Pearce, Curator, The Southern Food and Beverage Museum

(T-shirt image courtesy of www.metrothree.com)