I'm excited that over 100 people are following the Cook for Good Challenge. There's plenty of time for you to join in the fun, with Meatless Monday being a great time to start.
Do you want to develop the confidence and skill to cook delicious, healthy, seasonal food from scratch on a very low budget—in just two weeks? Would you like to have significant savings to help cover your other expenses or to help others learn to cook healthy food? Then try it!
* What: Spend one week cooking most of your food from scratch. Make your Monday Meatless, then add have some meat if you want the other days. Spend the next week cooking all of it from scratch for a Meatless Week.
* When: July 16 through 29, 2011 for the national kickoff or start your own two weeks any time after that.
* Where: Kitchens everywhere!
*Who: Individual cooks, families, and groups.
* Why: You won't believe how easy, fun, and delicious it is until you try it. And you'll rack up the savings, for yourself or to help a charity or good cause (including the candidate or group of your choice)
more below the fold ...
Save and donate. Here's what you could save per person using the Cook for Good green plan compared to the UDSA recommended food plans over a two week period:
* Thrifty: $1
* Low: $22
* Moderate: $45
* Extravagant: $70
Note that these are the USDA recommended plans ... far healthier than what people actually eat. See details and an interesting chart comparing the two on the Challenge page.
Heard of Clean for Gene? This could be Beans for Dean! Save some money, then donate it.
There are lots of good reasons to take the Cook for Good Challenge, from fun to good food to helping your community and the planet. I suspect some of you will also enjoy the feeling that got me started on the project four years ago: I was making a difference with every meal, no matter what my elected officials, big business, and the like were doing. As Howard Dean said, you have the power!