Food bloggers around the world are uniting for the third annual 'Menu for Hope' fundraising drive, to provide hunger relief for needy people. The first Menu for Hope, which was started by Pim Techamuanvivit for her blog, Chez Pim (chezpim.typepad.com) raised money to help victims of the 2004 Southeast Asian tsunami; this year's fundraiser benefits the UN World Food Programme.

Participating food bloggers have donated prizes; readers purchase virtual raffle tickets (US$10 each) through a secure server and each ticket can be entered to win the reader's choice of prize(s). The Hong Kong food blogger known as Cha Xiu Bao (chaxiubao.typepad.com) has donated a set of four signed Anthony Bourdain books (including Kitchen Confidential and Les Halles Cookbook). Singaporean food blogger Chubby Hubby (chubbyhubby.net) has donated dinners at Felix, in the Peninsula, Tetsuya's, in Sydney, and Iggy's, in Singapore. To see the prizes, see chezpim.typepad.com/blogs/2006/12/menu_for_hope_i.html; to buy raffle tickets, go to firstgiving.com/menuforhopeIII. Winners will be announced on Pim's website on January 15.