It's the time of year for giving, so we're participating in the 5th annual Menu for Hope charity raffle, which brings together food bloggers from around the world in the fight against hunger. Bloggers offer prizes that you can win by purchasing a $10 raffle ticket. The proceeds of the charity raffle goes to the U.N. World Food Program (WFP).

Last year, we gave away an iPhone. This year we want to share our love of a Bay Area product, Scharffen Berger chocolate. Many of you know that we love to eat and bake with Scharffen Berger chocolate and we wrote about the factory tour previously. So our raffle prize this year is the following...

Scharffen Berger Gift Package

• A 5 pound bag of petit baking squares. The winner gets to choose between 62% semisweet, 70% bittersweet and 99% unsweetened chocolate.
• The Essence of Chocolate: Recipes for Baking and Cooking with Fine Chocolate cookbook by Robert Steinberg and John Scharffenberger
• A Scharffen Berger (extra) bitter t-shirt

Due to the weight and temperature concerns (we don't want your chocolate to melt), we're limiting shipping to the US only. The charity raffle runs from December 15th - 24th with raffle winners announced on January 12th.

The prize code for our Scharffen Berger gift package is UW24. Shipped within the US only.

How to Enter/Donation Instructions

1) Choose a prize(s). For a complete list of prizes offered worldwide, visit Chez Pim. For a list of prizes from West Coast food bloggers, visit MattBites.

2) Go to Firstgiving, the online fundraising company used to manage the Menu for Hope charity raffle, and make a donation.

3) Specify the prize you would like to bid for in the 'Personal Message' section of the donation form. Every $10 donated will get one raffle ticket toward a prize. For example, a donation of $50 gets 5 raffle tickets, which can be distributed between different prizes, such as 3 tickets for UW24 and 2 tickets for UW33. This would be entered as 3xUW24, 2xUW33.

4) If your company matches your charity donation, please check the box and fill in the information so the corporate match can be claimed.

5) Please check the box to allow us to see your email address so that Menu for Hope can contact you if you win. Your email address will not be shared with anyone.

Please spread the word to your friends and family to help in the fight against hunger! Let me know if you have any questions and thanks in advance for your generosity.

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I'm very happy to announce that Sunday Nite Dinner is participating in the 4th annual Menu for Hope charity raffle, which brings together food bloggers from around the world in the fight against hunger. Bloggers offer prizes that you can win by purchasing a $10 raffle ticket. The proceeds of the charity raffle goes to the U.N. World Food Program (WFP).

I was amazed to learn that in the last decade the number of people suffering from hunger and malnutrition rose from 791 million to 854 million. The WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency: each year, WFP gives food to an average of 90 million poor people to meet their nutritional needs, including 56 million hungry children, in at least 80 of the world's poorest countries.

The number of people suffering from hunger is staggering. We have seen it first hand in our travels to Africa and Southeast Asia. Participating in Menu for Hope is one small way to help people much less fortunate than us.

The charity raffle runs from December 10th - 21st with raffle winners announced on January 9th. Prizes vary from homemade cookies to touring the elBulli laboratory with Ferran Adrià. Since I'm a complete gearhead, I donated an Apple iPhone 8GB (US) as SND's prize in Menu for Hope. I use my iPhone all the time to keep track of shopping lists, find restaurants while out and about, get directions, take pictures of delicious dishes, and surf for new recipes on my favorite food blogs and forums. It's the perfect phone for the on-the-go cook or food lover.

The prize code for the Apple iPhone is UW27. Shipped within the US only.

How to Enter/Donation Instructions

1) Choose a prize(s). For a complete list of prizes offered worldwide, visit Chez Pim. For a list of prizes from West Coast food bloggers, visit Rasa Malaysia.

2) Go to Firstgiving, the online fundraising company used to manage the Menu for Hope charity raffle, and make a donation.

3) Specify the prize you would like to bid for in the 'Personal Message' section of the donation form. Every $10 donated will get one raffle ticket toward a prize. For example, a donation of $50 gets 5 raffle tickets, which can be distributed between different prizes, such as 3 tickets for UW27 and 2 tickets for UW33. This would be entered as 3xUW27, 2xUW33.

4) If your company matches your charity donation, please check the box and fill in the information so the corporate match can be claimed.

5) Please check the box to allow us to see your email address so that Menu for Hope can contact you if you win. Your email address will not be shared with anyone.

Please spread the word to your friends and family to help in the fight against hunger! Let me know if you have any questions and thanks in advance for your generosity.

Update Dec 27th, 2007: The fundraising campaign is now over with $90,191 raised for the UN World Food Program! Check back on January 9th for the raffle winners announcement. Thanks to everyone, who donated to the cause!

Update Jan 11th, 2008: Congratulations Debra Braun! You're the lucky winner of the Apple iPhone. Please leave a comment and I'll respond via email to get your shipping info. Cheers!

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