Downtown Sebastopol will ring with the sound of the auctioneer’s gavel on June 6, as Food For Thought holds its ninth live auction. The event focuses on antiques and collectibles, wine, and luxury items such as vacation packages.

The auction is one of the organization’s biggest fundraising events, funding a substantial part of the food budget. In fact, it has historically been Sonoma County’s single largest HIV/AIDS fundraising event.

This event happens through the efforts of board members, volunteers, and Food For Thought staff.  Items are donated by private individuals and established businesses, such as the Zentner Collection in Emeryville, Green Fish Trading, Gado Gado, and Cokas-Diko, all in Santa Rosa, and Far West Trading Co. in Graton.

There are always unusual items.

Financial support for the event happens in many ways. Underwriting in the form of business and individual sponsorships helps to defray the costs of the event, donated items create the inventory for the sale, and of course, buyers create the excitement that marks the auction. Food for Thought offers special thanks to Russell Wherrit of Sebastopol, the auction’s founding organizer, who has offered to match this year’s auction underwriting.  If you are interested in becoming a corporate or individual sponsor, please contact Lisa Longhurst at (707) 887-1647.

On the block will be a collection of fine quality American, Asian and European antiques, collectibles and art from around the world, oriental rugs, fine wines, furniture and

decorative accessories, luxury vacations, restaurant dinners and many other desirable items.

Food For Thought also owns FFT Antiques & Collectibles, at 2701 Gravenstein Hwy. South in Sebastopol.  All profits from the store support the work of Food For Thought.

For more information, or to donate items, contact Allen Chivens at FFT Antiques (707) 823-3101 or by email at info@fftfoodbank.org.

Our 14th annual Western Sonoma County Home & Garden Tour saw lots of happy people out in the sunshine on May 17.

In addition to the gracious property owners who shared their homes and gardens with us, lots of other people helped to make the day a success.

Sponsors provided financial underwriting for the event, and more than 50 volunteers worked to make everyone feel welcome and keep things running smoothly.

Here are descriptions and pictures from each site so you can take a virtual tour:

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1. St. Dizier/Penner Residence, Forestville
2. Spirit Hill Farm, Graton
3. Grace Ranch, Graton
4. French Garden Farm, between Sebastopol and Occidental
5. McAuliffe Resident, Sebastopol
6. Truax/Whiteman Residence, Freestone
7. Simpkins-Wright Residence, Sebastopol

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Our thanks to the gracious individuals and businesses who helped to underwrite our
14th Annual Western Sonoma County Spring Home & Garden Tour

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Madrone

Kate Anchordoguy Landscaping, Inc.
California Food Connections
Shirley Liberman and Margaret Livingston
Sonoma West Times & News
Sprint Copy Center

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Dogwood

Tom Boag and Ralph Hamblin
Janet Cahill
John and Patricia Dervin
Pearson & Co.
Charles Wagner and Thomas Culp

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Rhododendron

Bill Batchelor
Gene Bonino and Will Brown
Lyle Mary Bullock
Gar Cross and George White
Gary Eisman
Yusuf Erskine
Pamela Gray
Sharon Huyck
Steve Isaacson
Katherine Kendall and Peaches Henning
Patricia Menicucci
Mike Menius and Ken Harlan
Screamin’ Mimi’s
Elizabeth Theiss
Dee and Dan Whickham
Sandy Younglove

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Food For Thought’s annual Western Sonoma County Home & Garden Tour is a local spring tradition for many people, who gather with friends and family members to spend a day in the countyside.

We were delighted to be included in a Press Democrat article by Meg McConahey about spring home and garden tours. You can read it here.

The 2009 Home and Garden Tour lunches are being supplied by Pearson & Co. in Santa Rosa.

Lunches will be available by pre-order only.

The lunches will be distributed at a centrally-located home on the tour, and shady eating areas will be set up there as well.

Pearson & Co has four locations in Santa Rosa, at 2500 Mendocino Ave. at the corner of Chanate (near the county buildings),  on Fourth Street between Toyworks and Safeway, near the Flamingo Hotel, and two sites in the Kaiser-Permanent Stein Campus on Old Redwood Highway.

We are offering 3 box lunch choices

Chicken Caesar Salad
w/ fresh fruit, sliced baguette & butter,
and a chocolate-dipped coconut macaroon

Grilled Seasonal Vegetable Sandwich with Hummus & Mixed Greens on Herb Focaccia
w/ pasta salad, fruit salad, and a homemade cookie.

Roast Beef with Grilled Onions and Red Peppers, Fontina Cheese, Mixed Greens, & Pesto Mayonnaise on a Ciabatta Roll
w/ pasta salad, fruit salad, and a homemade cookie.

They are $15 each.

(Please, no mixing and matching)

Beverages:

There will be water, iced tea, and lemonade available at the tour site where the lunches will be distributed.

Important:

Tickets ordered online, or by phone, before noon on Wednesday, May 13 will be mailed (unless you ask us to hold them for you).

Tickets can still be ordered after that time, but they will be held in our office for you to pick up before the tour, any time during regular business hours. Our office will also be open for ticket sales, and pre-ordered ticket pick-up, the day of the tour from 10 a.m. to noon only.

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Ordering tickets for Food For Thought’s 14th annual Western Sonoma County Home & Garden Tour is quick and easy. (It also keep us from having to pay the credit card fees that apply if we use the processing terminal in our office! Be assured that our online donation form is completely secure.)

Here’s how to order:

Decide how many tickets you want.

Tickets are $45 each.

Decide how many box lunches you want.

Box Lunches are $15 each.

Total it all up: (# Tix x 45) + (# Lunches  x 15) = Grand Total

Then, use the Make A Donation button at the top of the website’s left-hand column.

Your donation amount will be your Grand Total.

Use the comments box to explain how the amount breaks down. You can also indicate the type of lunches you would like (if you leave this blank, we’ll try to call or email you).

Here is an example (click to enlarge):

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Enjoy you day in the country!

One of our volunteer home delivery drivers found this note written on a piece of binder paper and hung on a client’s front door.

For the Food For Thought delivery person and everyone else at the food bank:

Thank you. If you only knew just how much this means to me. My words can’t nearly come close to how I feel. God bless you all.

We’re absolutely delighted to once again win a Sonoma County “Best of the Bohemian” award from the North Bay Bohemian weekly. This year we’re sharing the honor with the venerable Sonoma County Humane Society. Thank you to all of our supporters!

At Food For Thought’s last Eating For Life gathering, nutritionist Lisa Lambiase and Pat Kuta demonstrated two recipes that can be easily be made in a slow cooker (one familiar brand name is “Crock Pot”).  Slow cookers  can be a great resource for people living in spaces without a full kitchen, offering an alternative to microwaved foods.

They prepared two savory recipes (below),  soft polenta and a black bean soup with quinoa. Both can be made inexpensively and both are filling and nutritious. Sauteed greens from the FFT garden rounded out the menu for the demonstration’s lunch.

Eating For Life gatherings for people with HIV are held occasionally at Food For Thought.  They offer good opportunities to ask questions about nutrition, diets, food supplements, reading food labels, or anything else related to nutrition. Lunch is served as part of the demonstration and there is no cost to participate.

For more information on Eating for Life gatherings contact Lisa Lambiase at (707) 565-7403, or FFT Client Services Manager Rachel Gardener, at (707) 887-1647 x104, or email Rachel at rachelg@fftfoodbank.org.

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Black Bean Soup with Quinoa

Pat’s slow cooker black bean soup is rich with flavor!

Ingredients:

1 pound dry black beans
1 1/2 quarts water
1 carrot, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 large red onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, crushed
2 green bell peppers, chopped
2 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
1/4 cup dry lentils
1 (28 ounce) can peeled and diced tomatoes
2 tablespoons chili powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 cup uncooked quinoa

Directions:
1. In a large pot over medium-high heat, place the beans in three times their volume of water. Bring to a boil, and let boil 10 minutes. Cover, remove from heat and let stand 1 hour. Drain, and rinse.
2. In a slow cooker, combine soaked beans and 1 1/2 quarts fresh water. Cover, and cook for 3 hours on High.
3. Stir in carrot, celery, onion, garlic, bell peppers, jalapeno pepper, lentils, and tomatoes. Season with chili powder, cumin, oregano, black pepper, red wine vinegar, and salt. Cook on Low for 2 to 3 hours. Stir the quinoa into the slow cooker in the last 20 minutes of cooking.
4. Puree about half of the soup with a blender or food processor, then pour back into the pot before serving.

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Polenta in a Crock Pot or Slow Cooker

Recipe courtesy of FFT friend Michele Anna Jordan

Makes 12 to 16 servings

Ingredients:

3 cups polenta, as fresh as possible
1 tablespoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
6 tablespoons butter, preferably organic (see Note Below)
8 ounces grated cheese, Vella Dry Jack, Parmigiano-Reggiano or Pecorino-Romano or a mixture of these
– Black pepper, freshly ground
– Toppings of choice (see list below)

Pour 12 cups of water into a Crock Pot or slow cooker and set the control to high. Pour in the polenta, whisking to encourage the grains to separate. Add the salt and cover with the lid.

Give the polenta a quick stir every 15 minutes or so until it begins to thicken, which will take about an hour and a half, possibly two. Reduce the heat to low and cook for 4 to 5 hours, stirring now and then if you think of it. When the polenta is tender and creamy, reset the heat to warm and hold for up to 10 hours. If at any point the polenta seems too thick, thin it with a little water.

To serve, reset the heat to low, stir in the butter and cheese, correct for salt and season with several turns of black pepper.

Let guests serve themselves and choose their toppings from the selection you provide.

NOTE: If you must reduce saturated fats in your diet, you can simply omit the butter in this recipe. Howeer, if you do not need to omit it, do not feel you must. Organic butter is a healthy food that both contains valuable nutrients and aids with the absorption of the nutrients in the polenta.

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Experiment with combinations of savory and sweet flavors to finish off polenta:

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Savory
Select at least three of these toppings and set them in the middle of the table where you will eat. Some guests will know exactly what to do and some will need a bit of explanation and encouragement. There is no right or wrong way to top polenta; guests should feel free to experiment with combinations of flavors.

• Extra Virgin Olive Oil or Olio Nuovo, preferably from DaVero or Terra Savia; blue cheese of choice (Gorgonzola is traditional; Pt. Reyes Original Blue works well, too); lightly toasted walnuts. Substitute Italian Fontina if you do not want to serve a blue-veined cheese.
• Creme fraiche; lemon zest; snipped chives or minced Italian parsley
• Chabis (fresh goat cheese); pomegranate arils; black pepper
• Italian salsa verde
• Sauteed winter greens and garlic; crisp bacon, crumbled
• Wilted spinach with garlic, lemon and olive oil
• Sauteed broccoli with sliced garlic and red pepper flakes
• Grilled, fried or poached sausages, sliced; minced fresh sage
• Steamed clams and/or steamed mussels in their broth
• Wild or specialty mushrooms sauteed in butter and a splash of Madeira
• Marinara sauce
• Eggs poached in marinara sauce
• Braised short ribs
• Creamed salt cod

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Sweet
If you need to prepare breakfast for several people either daily or occasionally, polenta cooked overnight in a Crock Pot is a great way to go. I recommend offering both sweet and savory toppings as not everyone wants something sweet in the morning. A breakfast favorite is olive oil, walnuts and Gorgonzola.

• Butter, maple syrup
• Butter, warm honey
• Organic cream, cinnamon sugar
• Applesauce, cinnamon
• Winter fruit compote
• Fruit chutney
• Homemade jam
• Apple butter or pear butter
• Sliced pears sauteed in butter
• Sliced apples sauteed in butter

Here is a story about how a little bit of help in the world has the potential to grow into a lot:

Sarah Wright, who wrote the letter from Namibia that is posted earlier in this blog, sent another email to FFT, explaining how she became involved in helping in Namibia and where that has taken her life.

She explains that she used to babysit for Paula and Mark Netherda’s children. Mark Netherda is the Sonoma County-based HIV doctor who has be working to establish an anti-retroviral program in Namibia

She explains:

When Mark returned from Namibia he told me about this soup kitchen that one of the nurses had taken him to. He described to me the desperation and the need there. Originally, I believe he was intending us to do a school supply drive.

However, Sarah, who was working on her Girl Scout Gold Award Project (the gold award is the highest award given by the Girl Scouts), and her high school senior project, had other ideas.

My project partner, Katherine Robinson, and I decided that we would like to go to the center and volunteer. After eight months of fundraising, we collected over 420 pounds of supplies and $10,000 and headed for the Hope Initiatives project the summer of my junior year of high school. We taught English and math through art at the bridging school run by Hope Initiatives and in the afternoons we would volunteer at the soup kitchen in Okahandja Park.

The experience altered my life and my career path. I am now studying International Relations with an emphasis in African studies and third world economic development at UC-Davis.

We continue to express wonderment at the food bank’s connection to a group of people doing good work, in the face of the same virus, so far away. The connections reach out across the globe, and a remarkable number now intersect in Sonoma County. Sarah’s babysitting job led her to an educational path that will hopefully continue to help make the world a better place.

This email came to us from Sarah’s Semester at Sea.  Semester at Sea is a 45-year-old college program that allows students the opportunity to continue their academic studies on a ship as it travels the world.  Along with her recent return visit to Namibia, Sarah’s journey is taking her to the  Bahamas,  Spain, Morocco, South Africa, Mauritius, India, Thailand, Viet Nam, China, Japan, Hawaii, Guatemala, and Florida — after passing through the Panama Canal.

She’s keeping a blog of her trip and you can read it here.

This letter is from Doug Gosling, our head gardener and a member of the Project Africa committee, who has spent the past few weeks in Namibia, helping Hope Initiatives build a garden.

Dear all dear people on the PA Committee,

I just read Sarah Wright’s email to all of us on the committee, and echo her feelings about being here and witnessing the miracle that is Hope Initiatives. This project is truly one of the most dynamic, loving and deeply beautiful pieces of work I have ever been a part of in my life! Thanks to all of you for being part of the puzzle which makes it hum, and for allowing me to be part of this incredible evolving creative process!

Incredibly, in a short week we’ve succeeded in raising a very sweet garden from a rubble field full of billions of rocks-some weighing hundreds of pounds, requiring 6-8 people to remove- and sifting out buckets and buckets of broken glass and garbage! Yesterday we started our intensive organic gardening “training” which had to be translated for the Oshivambo members of the team while it bucketed rain on the corrugated tin roof of the soup kitchen. We’re doing the proverbial “train the trainers” approach, so this group of four can then train a group of teenage boys and men and women caregivers (for the orphans) who are the identified ongoing Garden Club. It felt like something of a miracle to be transplanting tomatoes, celery, sweet peppers and eggplant with this motley assortment of rabidly interested helpers so soon after first contemplating the most barren garden site I had ever seen in my life .

Here is a picture of the garden Doug’s been helping to build, and the giant rock in the middle that’s supplying the shade for the “clamshell” herb garden.

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Almost every day we’ve had “volunteer days” of up to 20 people and all sorts of hangers-on, including sweet Julia, the town crazywoman, who is is my favorite person so far. We managed to put in a stone main pathway, pebbles on all paths between the 12 beds, and installed a perennial herb garden underneath massive 45 degree-angled slab, which has plans to go nowhere, such that it looks like we have a giant clam at the entrance of the garden, sheltering a little herb garden of an assortment of rosemary, lavender, spearmint, cilantro, basil and lemon thyme.

(Imagine my emotional and spiritual confusion when we can go from our home base of Windhoek, which is a gorgeous city high in the mountains like something right out of Holland or Germany, where we’ve been eating in five-star restaurants and shopping at nurseries where you can buy organic amendments such as kelp powder and bonemeal, and such refined things as chervil and lovage seedlings, and then go out to the informal settlements where people live in tin boxes, share communal latrines and barely have shoes and clothing to wear. Africa is a land of brutal, often cruel realities and contrasts. We’ve also been looking for Namibian medicinal plants especially valuable in HIV/AIDS support, have found a few native perennial leguminous compost crops, and are planting bamboo to produce tomato stakes, etc.

It has been an incredible privilege once again to see the power of a garden and work to build soil to create hope, community, empowerment, engagement, abundance and all that good stuff!

To say my mind is blown and heart blasted wide open is an understatement.

Love to all of you and I hope everyone is fine, and I’ll be back next
week on Tuesday!

Best to you,

Dougo

This is a letter from Sarah Wright. Sarah, now 20, originally visited Hope Initiatives in Namibia four years ago when she was still in high school. Now in college, Namibia was one of the stops during her Semester at Sea. She was able to visit Hope Initiatives again and wrote to Food For Thought’s Project Africa committee:

As you may know I visited Namibia in mid-Feburary for 3 days with the study abroad program I am currently attending. I had the opportunity to go to Windhoek and contacted Patricia.

On the only day we were in Windhoek we met Patricia at her church in Katatura. She took us out to the newest soup kitchen (Kilimanjaro). Beaming with pride, she showed us the leaps and bound that they have made since our departure a mere four years ago. You can not even imagine my glee and amazement to see a brown earthy cement building with toilets, a kitchen area, recreation room, and electrical lights  (you can only imagine how dark it was in that little tin shack)!  The site was still under construction and but she was ecstatic to show us where a soccer “pitch”and gardens were to go. She was practically jumping at the thought of Doug’s impending arrival and I reassured her of Doug’s magical green thumb.

[Editor's note: Doug Gosling is the garden manager for the Occidental Center for Arts and Ecology, and is also the head gardener in Food For Thought's garden.]

The fact that the organization actually owned the center and the land, with accompanying fence, allowed her a sense of pride and security I had never really seen her express. As we left the facility I was in awe. They had made such progress since I had been there. We then went to the Okahandja center, which they had just finished the structural work on when we left four years ago. It was absolutely beautiful. The building was colorful and welcoming and they had an actual play structure! When we were there is was a rickety metal slide, which got extremely hot during the summer months, that lead right into a pile of rocks. Countless kids would go down the slide hit the ground and fly into the rocks. It was horrible — any parent’s nightmare.

I could not be more proud of the work that the Project Africa committee has done for this organization and for the children of Namibia. If you ever have any doubt that what you are doing does not bring lasting and immediate change, let me respectfully correct you in saying that you are simply wrong. In the period of four years — because of the dedication of generous people like yourselves, worlds away from the problem — Hope Initatives has made changes I did not think would occur in these childrens’ lifetimes. So I would like to express my extreme gratitude for all your time, dedication, and commitment to the children of Namibia. I can not express to you how much of a difference you have made. I am truly proud to have been a part of the Project Africa committee and thank Food for Thought for it’s lasting understanding and generosity towards the Hope Initiative Project. I hope you all are well and look forward to see you when I return home in May.

Love,

Sarah

We hope you’ll take the time to watch this short film, Where Would We Be Without You: A Video History of AIDS Activism in Sonoma County.

It’s going to live on our website under the “History” tab, but we wanted to call it to your attention.

We’re able to show it through the graciousness of the people who were involved with the Sonoma County AIDS Leadership Academy, an organization that trained individuals to become community leaders in the AIDS/HIV field.  Although the Academy is not currently active, many of the people involved with, or trained by, the Academy are working in Sonoma County today. For more information, please contact the Food For Thought offices.

This film was the concept of the late Stewart Scofield, who was FFT’s first employee and volunteer coordinator until his death in April, 2008.  He directed it, along with Everett Charters, and cameraman Paul Schwartz. The film includes an interview with Stewart.

This is an important historical  document, which tells the story – in the first person – of how individuals came together in response to AIDS in our community.  At Food For Thought, we feel that it’s important to understand how the independent actions of caring people contributed to the spectrum of services.  This is vital to an understanding of the history of AIDS activism, both in Sonoma County, and everywhere else. We’re proud to make it available to you:

Once again, Dining Out For Life turned out to be Sonoma County’s biggest dinner party!

This is our biggest annual money-raising event,” says Ron Karp, FFT’s executive director.

“This was the seventh year we’ve held this event and every year it’s grown bigger. We started with 32 restaurants and this year 60 participated,” he says. “We get a lot of enthusiastic support. We heard from people who ate every meal in a restaurant that day.”

It can take a while to measure the success of the event. Restaurants fill out paperwork and return it with a check, based on their sales figures. Additionally, donation envelopes from diners keep arriving in the mail for weeks afterwards.

Despite the tough economy, it’s looking like this year’s event will finish pretty close to last year’s in terms of total dollars raised. “We had to work harder for it,” Ron explains. “There were seven more restaurants, and lots of volunteers.”

The money raised by this event will buy a third of the of the food FFT will distribute this year. “So, all this effort is definitely worth it,” he says, pointing out that lots of new donors and volunteers first get to know the food bank though Dining Out For Life.

Plans are already in the works for next year’s event. “We’ve already heard from half a dozen new restaurants that want to be included,” Ron said. “Dining Out For Life is held the Thursday after Thanksgiving in Sonoma County, so you can mark your calendar for Dec. 3, 2009.”

On one of the hottest, sunniest days of the spring seven generous property owners opened their homes and gardens to benefit Food For Thought.

Our 14th annual Western Sonoma County Home & Garden Tour was a huge success.

Why?

Happiness.

As one tour attendee said in a note to us: “… not a grouchy person anywhere in all that heat!”

On a day when the mercury hovered in the 90s, there was incredible good cheer on the tour. More than 50 FFT volunteers greeted people, directed parking and traffic, handed out lunches, and answered questions – all with smiles.

In addition, the homeowners told us we have the nicest group of tour attendees they could imagine and were impressed with the thoughtful questions they were asked and gratitude they heard expressed.

For those of you who missed this year’s tour, or would like more information, you can take our virtual tour.

We’re already searching out homes and gardens for next year’s tour. If you know a home or garden (it can be just a garden without the home) that might be a good candidate, please contact Suzi LeBaron at suzil@fftfoodbank.org.

We hope to see you on next year’s tour!

On June 7, the Food For Thought Live Auction will turn straw into gold.

It’s time to dust off the antiques and collectibles that no longer resonate in your life. Through the magic of our auction, those things you no longer desire can be turned into food for hungry people. It’s almost as simple as that.

The auction is one of our biggest events, funding a substantial part of our food budget. In fact, it has historically been Sonoma County’s single largest AIDS/HIV fundraiser.

The auction happens through the efforts of board members, volunteers, and FFT staff. Financial support for the event happens in many ways: underwriting in the form of business and individual sponsorships helps to defray the costs of the event, donated items create the inventory for the sale, and of course, buyers fuel the event and create the excitement that marks the auction.
Now is the time to consider what you might donate to the auction. We love to get unique and one-of-a-kind items. Do you have antiques from around the world? Heirloom-quality home accessories? A special collection that you’re no longer enthused about? Take stock. So many of us have items of value that we don’t really use or need. Donating them to the Food For Thought Live Auction is the perfect way to turn them into instant support for the community.
Items that have sold well in the past have included antiques from Europe, Asia, and Africa. Premium sports tickets, fine wines, collectible vehicles, china and silver, fine home furnishings, loans of vacation homes, meals, collectibles, and objects d’art. Buyers can look forward to these things, and more.
Buyers take note: There are great bargains to be had at the auction. Be prepared to break open that piggybank!

Note: If you’d like to see the items that were sold in our last auction, please visit our auction site, www.foodforthoughtauction.com.

Ron Karp, Executive Director (L), with Bruce Higton

The Golden Can Opener is the highest award we give at Food For Thought.

It is presented to someone who has made, in a volunteer capacity, an outstanding contribution to the organization in all areas of service.

It’s not presented annually. We only give it when we feel it’s warranted. Only nine of the awards have been presented in the 20 years of the organization.

And now there’s ten:

Bruce Higton is the newest addition to the exclusive Golden Can Opener society.

Bruce has been volunteering at Food For Thought for nearly 10 years. He volunteers in the daily operations of the food bank and volunteers at our events. He has served on the event committees for Dining Out For Life and our bi-annual antique auction. Bruce recently retired from the FFT board after six years, two of them as president. He is a generous donor and has used his business contacts to help us purchase wholesale food at low prices. He has been a Secret Santa to our clients. He is a tireless supporter of the food bank, and his outreach efforts have connected us with many business partners.

Our congratulations to Bruce. We couldn’t bestow the Golden Can Opener on a nicer guy!

You can see a list of Golden Can Opener winners and other outstanding volunteers here.

Food For Thought’s Project Africa exists as part of a larger effort by a group of partnering ANSA members. ANSA is the Association of Nutrition Service Agencies, an international group of organizations that feed people. Many of these groups were founded in response to the U.S. AIDS epidemic, now a pandemic.

Please take a moment to watch this video about the work we’re doing in Africa. (There’s music, so turn up your volume!)

For those of you who are already friends of Food For Thought: Watch carefully, you may see someone you know!

Donations to Food For Thought’s Project Africa may be made through the secure
“Donate Now” button on the left side of this page.
Indicate in the memo box that the donation is for Project Africa.

When Santa Rosa gastroenterologist Veronica Ng decided to retire, she made a generous decision. In lieu of gifts, she asked that her well-wishers make a donation to Food For Thought’s Project Africa program. It’s an amazing thing to see how such a simple act can send ripples out into the world. Friends, family, and business contacts of Dr. Ng have raised nearly $3,500 to help feed children impacted by HIV/AIDS in Namibia.

Recently, Patricia Sola visited Food For Thought. She founded the organization in Namibia called Hope Initiatives that runs soup kitchens and a bridge school. Project Africa helps to support her programs. You can bet she’ll be putting Dr. Ng’s retirement gift to good use. And, in an emotional moment that made the world seem like a very small place, Dr. Ng was able to personally present her with a check from Food For Thought.

Dr. Ng says that she’ll be kicking off her retirement with a trip to Africa with her children that will include working in one of Patricia Sola’s kitchens.

There are so many ways to help!

Food For Thought has a wonderful fundraising cookbook, and now you can buy it right here on our website! It’s a fun and flavorful way to support the food bank. The book is full of recipes — actually more than 500 of them — ranging from the simple to the sublime.

Here’s a seasonal recipe from the book, to whet your appetite:

White Bean Salad with Shrimp and Asparagus

1 lb. asparagus, sliced into 1 inch pieces
1 lb. medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 tsp. freshly ground back pepper, divided
1 tsp. kosher salt, divided
1 1/2 tsp. vegetable oil
5 oz. torn spinach
2 (19 oz.) cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed.
4 bacon slices
1/2 cup sliced green onions
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
4 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
2 Tbsp. cider vinegar

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Cook or steam asparagus until tender-crisp. Drain and rinse with cold water. Sprinkle shrimp with 1/2 tsp. pepper and 1/2 tsp. salt. Heat oil in a medium non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Add shrimp; saut 4 minutes; remove from pan, and place in a large bowl. Add asparagus, spinach, onions, and beans to shrimp; toss well.

Add bacon to pan; cook over medium heat until crisp. Remove bacon from pan; crumble. Reserve 1 Tbsp. drippings in pan. Add garlic; cook 3 minutes or until soft, stirring fequently. Remove from heat; add remaining pepper, salt, bacon, broth, and the remaining ingredients. Drizzle dressing over salad; toss to coat. Serve immediately.

This recipe was submitted to the Food For Thought Cookbook by food bank friend Patricia Willets. Thanks, Patricia!

We’re happy to announce that Elisa Baker has joined the Food For Thought family as our new volunteer manager. Here is her self-styled introduction:

“I am delighted to be here to carry on the work and fill the huge gap left by Stewart Scofield. I was lucky enough to know Stewart as a good friend and a mentor. Stewart and I were both from small towns in Indiana — Hoosiers –- and we were both trained as librarians with our masters degrees at UC-Berkeley. We also both turned 60 this year.

I have been volunteering with Face for Face for 20 years and began volunteering at Food for Thought six years ago and loved it. I always left feeling better than when I arrived. When I took a paying job as the volunteer coordinator at Canine Companions for Independence, I asked Stewart what he thought and he said the job had my name written all over it – he was right. I love this work! I feel like Stewart is looking over my shoulder and guiding my path here at Food for Thought and I look forward to carrying on his good work. The staff here at Food for Thought has all pulled together at this difficult time, but Allen Chivens has been instrumental in making this a smooth transition. Allen manages our antique store, but has taken time to manage the volunteer program since Stewart’s death, and train me.

I know some of you and am looking forward to meeting many more. As a volunteer manager, I’m used to asking, begging, and pleading for your time and talents. I believe that volunteers are the heart and soul of what we do, and we can’t do it without you. Please come by the office and say “hello” — to me and my “canine companion” Samir –- a large yellow labrador retriever who shares my life and my office. We are both eager to meet you.”

As part of our annual fundraising Calabash celebration, artist and FFT volunteer Nancy Tello has conducted a series of workshops, leading participants in creating a piece of gourd art in memory of a loved one.

This will be the eighth year we’ve held Calabash (this year’s festival will be held Sunday, October 5), and the fourth year of the Memorial Gourd Workshop. Classes will be Thursday evenings July 10,17, 24, 31 and then an additional closure session will be held (at a date yet to be announced). For further information please contact Rachel Gardner at Food For Thought, 707.887.1647, or by email, rachelg@fftfoodbank.org.

Recently, Nancy wrote about her experiences from the first workshop:

“The first year was such an amazing experience. Each person brought a picture of the person they wanted to memorialize. We called out each name before we started, then process began. Few of the participants had ever worked with gourds as an art medium, but this was not your typical art project. Photos, shells, anything that was a reminder of the person was incorporated into the gourd. We all shared experiences about the people we were honoring. There were tears, laughter, hugs, and so much support. There were some participants, who until that time, hadn’t allowed themselves to feel the grief of their loss. Through all of this we recognized we had a common cause — to honor a special person in our lives. Here are a few quotes from people in that class:

“I thought I had worked through my grief about my dear friend, but this class helped direct my feelings even more. It brought joy for me to see something permanent in honoring our relationship; it also helped me through the turmoil that I was feeling due to my recent diagnosis of my own HIV status. I felt such a sense of comradery and support from each person in the class.” – Ron

” I appreciated taking the class with my mother, both of us making a gourd, we sat and spent time talking about my brother, and our relationship with him. Sharing with others in the class about him made me feel so supported. Knowing that I was not alone in my feelings was such a comfort, it helped me to appreciate my brother and to celebrate his life.” – Elaine

“My partner was the first to pass away in our group of friends, it was all so new, and no one knew what was happening. There was no support, no understanding at all, so it was very difficult to go through. I took the first memorial gourd workshop and it was there I found the support I had needed to finally accept and move on with my grief.” – Jim

So it’s time for the call to go out again. If you’d like to honor someone you know who has died of AIDS, come take the workshop. You’ll find a safe, supportive, loving place for your creative expression.

Two friends of the food bank have found a creative way of raising money for Food For Thought’s Project Africa: They’re walking (and walking and walking… )!

Last year Connie Beall, an enthusiastic FFT volunteer for more than a dozen years, walked the Coast to Coast route 192 miles across England, raising more than $7,500 to support food programs in Namibia.

This year, she and Chard Lowden plan to walk 95 miles across Scotland on the West Highland Way. They’ll set out on July 9 from Milngavie (pronounced Mill-guy), just outside of Glasgow and will finish in Ft. William on July 17. Their route goes south to north, straight up along Loch Lomond on old roads through the western highlands of Scotland (hence the name, the West Highland Way). It’s one of the first and most famous of the long distance walks in the United Kingdom. (See a map of their route, below.)

If you’d like to donate to support their walk, use the Donate Now! button to the left of this page and put “Walk for Africa” in the comments box.

The basic info about their walks is on their website, www.walkingforprojectafrica.org so be sure to check in. Especially lovely is their blog (and you’re here because you’re a blog reader, right?). It already has details about their training walks and preparation, as well as some great photos. They’ll make regular posts as they go along their “ramble”.

Here is what Connie has to say about the upcoming trek:

We’re hoping to elude the midges which are little “no see ums” that are famous for driving people nuts. Apparently one of the best repellants is Avon’s Skin So Soft. Who knew? We have to stock up.

It may surprise some, but I actually look forward to eating pub food- everything comes with chips (fries). On all my walks the pub food has been excellent, especially desserts. I hope to have kippers for breakfast too, a nice salty bony fish! I’ll have a half pint of cider before dinner but we’ll pass on all the local ales.

The Scots are famous for bloody massacres and we’re taking a day detour towards the end of the walk to Glencoe, site of the Campbell’s violation of clan hospitality by murdering a whole bunch of MacDonald’s after hosting them for 10 days — a political thing. The MacDonalds haven’t forgiven the Campbells yet…

Well, hopefully Connie and Chard won’t get caught in the crossfire. We’ll keep you updated about their walk.

Here’s the recipe for the wonderful chicken hor d’oeuvres John made for the FFT Antiques opening reception. Everyone was raving about it and he agreed to share his secret. It turns out the recipe is from the Silver Palate Good Times Cookbook, and it’s definitely not lean, but meant to be served in bite-sized chunks.

Silver Palate Thai Chicken Skewers

2 whole chicken breasts (4 pcs) skinned/boned
2 cups of half and half
1 1/2 cups of mayo
3 tbls mango chutney
2 tbls dry sherry
1 tbls sherry vinegar
2 tbls + 1 tsp curry powder
1 tsp tumeric
2 cups salted roasted peanuts, finely chopped
- chopped fresh cilantro (for garnish)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Place chicken breasts in shallow baking dish, just big enough to hold them. Pour the half and half over them and bake for 30 minutes. Let cool and cut them in to 1 inch pieces.
3. Process mayo, chutney, sherry, vinegar, curry powder and tumeric in blender or food processor with steel blade.
4. Dip the chicken pieces in the curry mayo and then roll them in the chopped peanuts. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
5. Serve each piece on a small skewer. Garnish with cilantro and accompany with a small bowl of giant raisins.

Makes about 40 hor d’oeuvres

(John says we can call him when they’re ready!)

We recently had a celebration at Food For Thought’s antique store.. With bright new road signs and new building signs in place, the store, formerly known as Collective Spaces, officially became FFT Antiques & Collectibles. It was also the occasion to remember and commemorate the late J. Randall Thompson, whose estate gift of his store set us on this fund-raising adventure.

Friends and supporters of Food For Thought toured the store, gathered in the tents outside for some wonderful food prepared by John Shoaf (a former board president), and took a look at the estate art collection (a gift from the estate of Robert Lemieux) that was part of the special weekend sale.

Even Jac, the store dog who loves a good party, joined in, barking as Board President Katherine Kendall welcomed the collected guests. The newly installed plaque by the front entrance reminds all of us of J. Randall Thompson’s gift and of the ongoing power of such planning and generosity. We plan to bring the vision and warmth of the food bank to this venture and make FFT Antiques a successful ongoing funding source for the food bank. Our purpose will be our advantage.

Friends of long-time food bank volunteer Daniel Bunch have established a Yahoo! group in his memory where you can share pictures and memories of Daniel. (You can see the group site here.) There’s a special online photo album there just for his Food For Thought friends. If you’d like to contribute thoughts or pictures to the site, you’ll have to join. If, for some reason, you have trouble signing up on line and want to participate, contact Daniel’s friend Jef for more information: jefbrun@yahoo.com.