Baked Relief - ADOPT A FAMILY

My life has changed this week. As have the lives of many of my friends and loved ones. And it's been changed thanks to Baked Relief (or #bakedrelief if you are on twitter!).

What is it? It's a revolution that has come about to feed the survivors of the Brisbane floods. It was initiated by my friend Danielle Crismani (@digellabakes on twitter) who needed to do SOMETHING to take her mind of her boys being stranded in the Lockyer Valley (with her mum, whose property was affected by flooding - they are all safe). She came up with the idea of baking some relief for the State Emergency Services volunteers who were sandbagging around Brisbane.

Word quickly spread - via her blog Digella Emporium and via twitter - and now it is bigger than Ben Hur!

Baking with friends - in 4 hours we made 1 veggie slice, 1 veggie and bacon slice , 24 carrot muffins, 2 date and walnut loaves, 2 gf chocolate cakes, 3 banana cakes, 3 loaves of sandwiches, 1 huge ANZAC slice

Egg and dairy free date loaves, gluten free carrot muffins, veggie and bacon slice

My first baked relief - 120 pork sausage rolls

How can you help?

I'm now starting to coordinate stage 2: ADOPT A FAMILY {I'm calling it stage 2, but it's probably stage 4, 5 or 6...}.

This involves matching families in need with people who are prepared to feed them a meal a week - possibly for up to a year. Ideally this will include a meal for the host family where applicable.

If you want to be involved please email me mel@melkettle.com.au with #bakedrelief in the subject line.

If you want to cook for a family I need to know:

• your name, email, mobile phone number
• suburbs you are prepared to travel to with meals
• how many people you are prepared to feed in a family
• what days you can provide meals

If you would like to register for a weekly meal I need to know:

• your name, email, mobile phone number, address where you are staying
• how many people need to be fed (and this should include your host family - they will need a break too!), broken down into adults and children
• any dietary requirements
• any other information I might need to know (access, preferred days, etc)

I'm hoping to be able to start matching families the week of 31 January 2011. 

Devastation at Fig Tree Pocket - day 3 post-flood. These friends will be lucky to be back within a year. 

Friend's kitchen. It was one of the most beautiful and practical kitchen's I've ever seen. 

UPDATE: Wednesday 19 January

THANK YOU to everyone who has registered to Adopt a Family. We are compiling a database and will match with families once we have been advised who needs support. As we need to work with official channels for this, it may take a couple of weeks. Please be patient. We hope to update everyone who has registered during the week of 31 January. 

UPDATE: Tuesday 22 February 

Thanks very much for your interest in the Adopt a Family program.  At this stage we have put the project on hold. We have had a lot of people register interest, but have had difficulty in finding families who need to be adopted. Should this situation change, we'll be in touch. 

However there are many other ways you can support the flood relief, including:

1. Register to cook for families with organisations such as www.floodaid.com.au and www.volunteeringqld.org.au
2. Check back with www.bakedrelief.org to see what is happening
3. Donate foods that are needed - in particular non-perishable food such as rice, pasta, tinned fruit/veg/tuna/beans/salmon, coffee, tea, milo, UHT milk, bottled drinks
4. Donate other goods that are needed - including toiletries for men, women and children (razors, shaving foam, shampoo, conditioner, soap, new nappies etc), and cleaning products (washing powder, sponges, bathroom cleaner etc)
5. Talk to your employer and see if they can help
6. Support our local farmers eg Lockyer Valley by buying local produce. You can do this through supporting organisations such as Food Connect (www.foodconnect.com.au). This can be an ongoing commitment.
7. Don’t let this fade from view.

A new year dawns.

This post was originally going to be about my food goals for 2011. But as I sit here typing this, floods are ravaging Queensland, many of my friends and loved ones are frantically packing away precious possessions and Brisbane is preparing for flooding, the likes of which have never been seen before.

It's quite surreal given that barely 2 years ago the dams that provided Brisbane with water were down to 16% capacity.

Today Wivenhoe, Somerset and North Pine Dams are releasing water from storage as they are significantly over 100% capacity. In fact, Wivenhoe is at 140% 160% 175% capacity {I personally didn't even know that was possible!}.

The point of this is that we need to all spare a thought for our farmers. I lamented earlier today that my poor garden has drowned. It only supplies me with a few herbs and veggies to save me a few pennies. Our farmers are far, far worse off. Their livelihoods and their futures are at stake.

My soggy veggies. The front was zucchini and cucumber. The chilli and lemongrass are thriving! Everything else is weeds or mint or a few other very drowned herbs!

But Queensland {and all other Australian} farmers are a hardy bunch. In the last 10 years alone they have survived crippling drought, cyclones, dust storms, locust plagues, and now severe flooding. They will come back from this latest challenge. But they will need our help.

These are my ideas as to how we can help, other than making a financial donation to the Queensland Flood Relief Appeal:

• buy from local farmers at farmer's markets - and yes, some of the produce will look a bit odd - it might be marked, it might be a funny shape, it might be a bit bruised, it might have the odd bit of extra protein {!}. But it will still taste good!
• buy from organisations that support local farmers - such as your local CSA {I buy from Food Connect in Brisbane}
• eat at cafes and restaurants that support local producers and growers
• find out about farm tours and farm stays and do one {Food Connect organise regular Farm Tours for farms around Brisbane}
• encourage your kids to eat more fruit and veg and teach them where it comes from - encourage schools to invite farmers along to talk to them and teach them.

What's a CSA? CSA stands for Community Shared Agriculture. It's when local communities buy directly from local farmers and other local producers to support locally grown seasonal produce. The benefits are many, but include reducing carbon emissions due to the food travelling fewer "food miles" and keeping money within your local community, thus benefitting the local economy and helping it become or remain sustainable. 

Being part of a CSA also allows city-folk to become more aware of where their food comes from so they can become more educated consumers. 

So how do you find out who supports local producers? Well, the easiest way is to ask. Talk to your local greengrocer, butcher and other retailers and ask them where they source their produce. If they don't support local then ask them why not. 

My biggest food goal for 2011 is going to be to better support my local farmers. Because without farmers we WILL starve. What will yours be?