Tweetsgiving: My Gratitude list

This post is created as part of a global groundswell of gratitude called TweetsGiving. The celebration, created by US nonprofit Epic Change, is an experiment in social innovation that seeks to change the world through the power of gratitude. I hope you’ll visit the TweetsGiving site below to learn more, and to bring your grateful heart to the party by sharing your gratitude, and giving in honor of that for which you’re most thankful.

In the last 48 hours, a small sampling of what I'm grateful for, in no particular order, mostly Twitter links with a few web sites thrown in:

1. Grateful for Christine Carroll and her Culinary Corps. Providing volunteer experiences for chefs, cooks, etc., changing their world and making a difference.

2.Grateful for the many years American Express has supported the hunger fight! Too much to list!

3. Grateful for the amazing work and support of Food Resource and Action Center (FRAC) in the childhood hunger fight.

4. Grateful for Carrie Welch (Twitter) and the leadership @ the Food Network  for their commitment to end child hunger.

5. Grateful for Domino Sugar (Twitter) and their commitment to helping end childhood hunger.

6. Grateful for the staff and volunteers of FLIPANY. Leading the Operation Frontline efforts in South Florida, they totally rule.

7. Grateful to all of you out there who have seized the moment & made social media a change engine for good in the world.

8. Grateful for the unselfish, amazing work of Tim Blair @ HungerNoMore  and Twitter for Food.

9. Grateful for social media visionaries like John Haydon. He's never too busy to help out!

10. Grateful for the Governmental support shown for various Federal nutrition programs. The facts show that a major increase across all programs is needed!

11. Grateful to all the followers of End Childhood Hunger who inspire and encourage all of us. Together, we will end hunger by 2015!

12. Grateful for the donors and sponsors who helped my nonprofit, End Childhood Hunger,  raise $1,000's to feed South Florida kids over the last two years. Words fail me.

13.Grateful for the Food Bank heros across the country who are facing incredible odds every day. You are all so inspiring!

14. Grateful for the South Florida volunteers helping  End Childhood Hunger make a difference on the street.

15. Grateful to have worked on South Florida's Taste of the Nation for 16 years. Nationwide, millions of $'s raised by 1,000's of people.

16. Grateful for Billy Shore and all the visionaries @ Share Our Strength. Ending childhood hunger by 2015!

17. Grateful for Tyson Foods leaders and my friend Ed Nicholson  You are making an amazing difference! Thank you!

18. Grateful for my family and you, each of my special friends, who give me the drive to get up every day and try to make a difference.
19. Grateful to be able to post this.

20. Grateful for Share our Strength's Great American Dine Out. $'s for hunger!

21. Grateful to have brought a dozen friends, family and a few strangers together today to share thanks and blessings.

22.Grateful to have the chance to be, in a very small way, a part of the solution.

23. Grateful I have never lived in fear, or without love. And that I choose to try to help those who have, and have lived without.

24. Grateful for Ezra Krieg. You inspire me, my friend.

25.Grateful to be blessed with more good in my life than I could ever reduce to one Blog post. Or 100.

26. Grateful for the  Florida End Childhood Hunger Project, its leaders Share Our Strength and Florida Impact.

27. Grateful for Jeff Swartz and all the amazing Timberland folks. Visionary and committed. Lucky to know him.

28. Grateful to have served as a volunteer with all the amazing Share Our Strength staff.  17 years of inspiration.

29. Grateful to all my chef friends and those in hospitality community who are continually giving so much to hunger fight. Definition of unselfishness.

30. Finally, to lighten it up, I'm grateful for Italy in general, Tuscany in particular, and Borgo di Vagli to escape to.

TweetsGiving: Just the tip of the Iceberg of things I'm grateful for today ...

Where does someone who has been so blessed in their life start, when asked to address the things he is grateful for as part of a worldwide movement to change the planet through the force of gratitude?

For starters, I would revisit a portion of the speech I made several years ago at the Share Our Strength Conference of Leaders. Standing up in a room filled with 400 activists whom I call heroes, having the chance to share with them our mutual passion and commitment to ending childhood hunger, I was very grateful. As I said that night:

"I am grateful for my amazing and inspiring wife and partner Susan, and for my beautiful, kind, intelligent and already socially conscious 5 year-old daughter Natalie, who makes all the worlds problems vanish when she smiles at me.

But there is much more:

I have never fought in a war.

I have never suffered from a mental illness.

I have never been homeless.

I have never gone hungry.

I have never lived without love in my life.

I have never lost faith.

I’ve got it pretty good. And I believe with all my heart that my fortunate circumstances bring an additional responsibility to make a difference in the world. My parents instilled that in me from an early age. And for that I will be eternally grateful."

When I was growing up I was firmly convinced that I could change the world. Instead, it seems, all to often the world changes us. Maybe, individually, one person can’t really "change" the world. But we can each start by changing our neighborhoods, and I believe that with the strengths that each of us can bring to the fight, we can, and will, defeat childhood hunger. And for those that agree and give of themselves to that noble cause, that quest, I am the most grateful.

This post was created as part of a global groundswell of gratitude called TweetsGiving. The celebration, created by US nonprofit Epic Change, is an experiment in social innovation that seeks to change the world through the power of gratitude. I hope you’ll visit the TweetsGiving site to learn more, and to bring your grateful heart to the party by sharing your gratitude, and giving in honor of that for which you’re most thankful.

You can use my previous post, below, to made your pledge! We all would be grateful.

It's time for TweetsGiving!!

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Call to Action: Social Media for Community Good

OK, it's been a crazy, and revealing, 2009. My ongoing work with End Childhood Hunger, Share Our Strength and others has moved me to try to more effectively channel my crazy energy, the energy that sometimes seems to filter off into nothing of lasting consequence each day, into a more formal commitment to utilize social media channels, i.e this Blog, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc., to help move the needle on change.

Let's start with my new top two:

The The 12for12k Challenge is the combination of social media awareness and fund-raising that aims to change the lives of millions worldwide. Founded by business consultant Danny Brown, its aim is to raise awareness and funds for 12 charities over the course of 2009, with a new charity being supported every month. The concept is simple:

12 months of the year

12 charities, a different charity each month

$12,000 per charity

How are they doing it? By using the power and outreach of social media to spread the word. From Twitter to Facebook, blogs to social media newsrooms and more, the 12for12k Challenge is helping their supported charities connect with as wide an audience as possible. And to ensure as much help goes to those who need it, all the partners in the 12for12k Challenge are offering their time and services for free. Check them out, join in, make a difference. Or, as they say: Hope - Change - Belief.

Next up: TweetsGiving!

TweetsGiving is a global celebration that seeks to change the world through the power of gratitude. Untold generations across the world’s cultures have extolled the virtues of gratitude.  The world’s major spiritual practices – from Christianity to Buddhism, Judaism, Islam and Hinduism – all praise gratitude as a moral disposition that elicits a sense of peace and encourages mutual kindness.  From Buddha to Marcus Aurelius, spiritual teachers and philosophers have long celebrated the simple act of being thankful.

Scheduled for November 24 – 26, 2009, the 48-hour event created by US nonprofit Epic Change will encourage participants to express their thanks using online tools and at live events. In honor of the people and things that make them grateful, guests will be invited to give to a common cause at events held across the globe.

You can attend a Gratitude party locally, spread Gratitude on the web by signing up your own social media hookup, or even host a House Party. And if you just want to donate, you can do it here!