"Parents have tremendous impact on how well their children develop language skills in the first five years of life," said Carol H. Rasco, president and CEO of RIF. "The RIF Multicultural Literacy Campaign reinforces this message and offers parents and caregivers new resources to help them get their children prepared for success with reading and in school."

With funding from Macy’s "Back to Books" program, RIF will donate more than 250 multicultural children’s book collections to kindergarten classrooms in low-income communities throughout the U.S. Each collection includes 50 hard-bound books with themes related to African-American, Asian, Hispanic, and Native American children.

The campaign includes the new RIF Leading to Reading website. This interactive site offers stories, nursery rhymes, and other activities for grown-ups to experience together with young children. I especially liked the activity calendar just for babies, toddlers, and preschoolers. (RIF also has a montly family activity calendar for older children on their main website.)

The site is offered both in English and in Spanish. And while it’s still under construction, it’s another great resource for parents from the folks at RIF.

I’m part of Kalyn’s Kitchen’s region of donors and have donated two sets of cookbooks. The first one is donated by This Mama Cooks! (Prize Code UC03)

• Saving Dinner the Low-Carb Way
• Small-Batch Baking
• Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think
• Your Kitchen’s Magic Wand: Getting the Most Out of Your Handheld Immersion Blender

A Readable Feast (Prize Code UC02) has donated:

• The Cake Bible
• Perfect Cakes
• Food Play

(All of the books I have donated are in new or like new shape and will be mailed out to the winner via media mail.)

Not only are there cookbooks and yummy treats, but a pass to BlogHer and an iPod Nano in our region. You can see the entire list of A Menu for Hope III prizes at Chez Pim.

Here’s how you bid:

1. Go to the donation page at First Giving.
2. Make a donation, each $10 will give you one raffle ticket toward a prize of your choice. Please specify which prize or prizes you’d like in the ‘Personal Message’ section in the donation form when confirming your donation. Do tell us how many tickets per prize, and please use the prize code (for example, a donation of $50 can be 2 tickets for UW01 and 3 for UW02).
3. If your company matches your charity donation, please remember to check the box and fill in the information so we could claim the corporate match.
4. Please also check the box to allow us to see your email address so that we could contact you in case you win. Your email address will not be shared with anyone.
5. Check back on Chez Pim on January 15 when we announce the result of the raffle.

All proceeds will benefit the United Nations World Food Program.

Technorati tags: United Nations World Food Program, food bloggers, cookbooks

LAST DAY to enter my contest to win a keepsake journal. Click here to find out how.

I will be participating in the Menu for Hope campaign sponsored by Chez Pim where food bloggers donate prizes and readers buy virtual raffle tickets for a chance to win them. Last year’s campaign raised over $17,000 for UNICEF. This year’s funds will be donated to the United Nations World Food Programme.

If you’re a food blogger and would like to participate, Pim has assigned specific host blogs to be in charge of a certain geographical area:

• US West Coast: Sam of Becks and Posh
• US East Coast: Adam of Amateur Gourmet
• US (the rest): Kalyn of Kalyn’s Kitchen
• Canada: Jasmine of Cardamom Addict
• Europe and UK: David Lebovitz of Davidlebovitz.com
• Latin America: Melissa de Leon of the Cooking Diva
• Asia Pacific: Helen of Grab Your Fork
• A special wine host for wine blogs: Alder Yarrow of Vinography.

Here is Pim’s announcement on Food Blog S’cool for more information about sponsoring a prize. You have until December 9 to contact your regional person and get them the picture(s) and description(s).

You can still be part of this important effort if your’e not a blogger by buying a few virtual raffle tickets. Donations will be collected by First Giving, who has generously reduced their fees to support the cause. This year’s campaign will kick off on December 11, when the host blogs will announce the prizes and you can begin buying tickets.

I will be donating several cookbooks at here at A Readable Feast and at my other food blog, This Mama Cooks! So stay tuned…

Technorati Tags: Menu For Hope, United Nations World Food Programme

Here’s Cowboy Nathan snacking on some hearty Mexican grub at last year’s National Western Stock Show. He’s a good reader, but I think he enjoys eating more.

If you had the choice between a fantastic meal and a wonderful book, what would you choose?