Our current charity is Cooking Matters.  Cooking Matters empowers families with the skills, knowledge and confidence to prepare healthy and affordable meals at home. Cooking Matters is available at more than 700 sites across the country. After the six-week course, participants have more confidence about what to do in the kitchen, and more knowledge about how to shop smarter on a budget.  Matthew and Harry were both weekly volunteers in the kitchen doing whatever was needed to let the families learn as much as possible during the two hours they were in class.

This is a great video on Why Cooking Matters:

Cooking Matters will use 100% of our donations to directly help people.  It will be earmarked to buy food for the classes or food for the families to bring home to practice their weekly recipe.

Here are some impressive statistics from Cooking Matter’s 2013 Annual Report:

And a picture of Matt volunteering just recently.

Please help us support such a worthy cause!  Here is their website: co.cookingmatters.org

Our first charity was Sinde Village in Africa.  Sinde Village is a small village in Zambia, that is very poor. This is why they needed our support. The average income in Sinde Village is less than $USD 1 per day. They survive on income from fishing and they also burn wood to make charcoal that they can sell at the market in order to buy vegetables and grains. Growing their own vegetables and grains is hindered by elephants that trample through the village on a regular basis.

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
          – Nelson Mandela.

We donated over $11,000 to the Sinde Village last year. $5,000 went to buying preschool and elementary school kid’s books. The remaining $6,000+ went to sponsoring six children through the seventh grade.

If you want to learn more about Sinde Village, please watch this presentation Hayley created:

 

Our charity changes each year.  In 2014, we chose Sinde Village, Zambia as our beneficiary.  This year 2016-2017, Matthew just choose Cooking Matters, Harry chooses next year, and so on.