This is the latest fund-raising event with the Share Our Strength charity group, which includes No Kid Hungry Boston and Cooking Matters. Cooking Matters is an amazing program that seeks out volunteer chefs and nutritionists (and people who just love food) to teach cooking classes in areas where socioeconomic conditions force a lot of families to chose between getting healthy food, or getting enough food. These cooking classes seek to help parents AND kids learn new ways to get better nutrition while staying within their budget. Some classes are aimed at parents who'd like to cook more for their family, but don't think they have the time or money to prepare fresh meals; other classes are for kids and teenagers who may have to make a lot of food choices on their own, and are interested in staying healthy while eating foods they like. The best part about these classes is that they don't just teach cooking skills and hand out recipes that will never get used: class participants always leave with the ingredients or groceries to go home and reproduce the meal themselves, or use the ingredients to try a new twist.

Now, No Kid Hungry has enlisted the help of area restaurants to donate some of their sales to the No Kid Hungry program: restaurants get to draw in new customers, and diners get an excuse to eat out and feel good about what they're spending money on. Plus, some restaurants only offer to donate the proceeds of certain items, further enticing diners to try new things- which means I'll be trying Boston Cream Pie for the first time tomorrow night!