Dear Editors:

Throughout our history, potluck meals have been the staple of community get togethers, with personally prepared dishes the key ingredient. Today, America's Second Harvest invites your readers to host a One Big Table Potluck event.  Each host invites friends and family members to serve up their favorite dish and to make a donation to help feed the hungry. 

The host of each event will pick a winning recipe, which will then be entered into a national contest to appear in Molly O'Neill's upcoming book, One Big Table: An American Cookbook. Recipe finalist also will be eligible to win exciting prizes from Viking Range Company and Sur la Table. 

I'm certain your readers will want to learn more about hosting a One Big Table Potluck, as well as the efforts of America's Second Harvest. 

The news release below provides more details. Please contact me for further information, including One Big Table events in your area.

Visit www.onebigtable.org

www.secondharvest.org

Anne Tschida Gomberg

America's Second Harvest

917-749-8304 -- mobile

212-448-9686 -- office

NEWS RELEASE                              

CHICAGO, May 12, 2005 — America’s Second Harvest – The Nation’s Food Bank Network has kicked off the 2005 One Big Table Potluck program by launching a new online tool for participants at www.onebigtable.org.

One Big Table Potluck is a national grassroots movement designed to raise funds to help feed hungry Americans. It also raises awareness of the problem of hunger throughout the country. The program will identifying the best cooks around the country while collecting recipes for a national recipe contest. Sponsors of the One Big Table Potluck include Sur La Table and Viking Range Company.

“Many Americans think of hunger as an issue that impacts citizens of other nations, and do not realize more than 36 million Americans are suffering from hunger or food insecurity” said Robert Forney, President and CEO of America’s Second Harvest, the Nation’s Food Bank Network.  “One Big Table Potlucks raise awareness of the importance of hunger in America and remind us our obligation to help our less fortunate neighbors secure food and better nutrition. Potlucks traditionally bring people together to socialize and share a meal.  Now, we can do all those things while helping others.” 

Through September 15, 2005 thousands of One Big Table Potlucks are expected to take place nationwide.  Any individual or organization can host a potluck at home, church, work, school or other location by inviting friends, family, colleagues and others to attend a potluck, submit a recipe and raise funds.  Funds raised at One Big Table Potlucks will benefit the America’s Second Harvest Network, including more than 200 food banks, to help hungry people in our community.

At each potluck, the host will identify a best recipe that will be submitted into a national recipe contest.  Winning recipes from each contest category—Heirloom, Regional, Personal Best, or Stone soup—will be considered for publication in a One Big Table: An American Cookbook written by food writer Molly O’Neill.

A national recipe contest event will be held in Chicago on Thursday, October 6, 2005.

For more information on how to join a One Big Table Potluck, including how to sign up as a host of a One Big Table Potluck, visit www.onebigtable.org

America's Second Harvest -- The Nation's Food Bank Network is the nation's largest charitable hunger-relief organization with a Network of more than 200 regional member food banks and food - rescue programs serving all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.  The America's Second Harvest Network secures and distributes nearly two billion pounds of donated food and grocery products annually.  The America's Second Harvest Network supports approximately 50,000 local charitable agencies operating more than 94,000 programs including food pantries, soup kitchens, emergency shelters, after-school programs, and Kids Cafes. Each year, the America's Second Harvest Network provides food assistance to more than 23 million low-income hungry people in the United States, including more than nine million children and nearly three million seniors.  For more on America's Second Harvest, please visit www.secondharvest.org.

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