Organize, Give, Reduce and more: Highlights from My Reader

Highlights for September 12-18

6 Ways to Organize Your Pantry from Zesty Cook.  Which reminds me, I said I was going to reorganize my pantry…fridge…cabinets when I moved in a month ago.  That still hasn’t happened.  Maybe I’ll do that today. Or not …if I reorganize things then I might not know where the are.  Organized chaos seems to be working well for us.

September is Hunger Action Month and Feeding America is running a Give a Little, Feed a Lot campaign.  The idea is to give up something little (lunch, a haircut, music downloads) and instead give the money to feed a lot of hungry people.  The calculator is an awesome way see exactly how many meals your donation would provide.

Gourmet has a good list of ways to reduce your carbon footprint every time you go to the supermarket.  I’m a lot more conscious in my eating than I was a year ago, but I still have a long way to go, especially buying organic and local.

From Endless Simmer, 3 reasons why Mark Bittman should get more time on television.  C’mon, you knew if there was anything about Mark Bittman this week I was going to link to it.  The man changed my life and How to Cook Everything Vegetarian is definitely the most used book in my kitchen.

A fascinating infographic from Good provides insight on the most and least carnivorous countries and what types of meat they are consuming.  (Via Serious Eats)

You Should Play Free Rice

This morning, triggered by Mashable’s article 20 Ways to Change the World in Only 15 Minutes a Day, I decided to start playing FreeRice again.  My husband, it turned out, had never heard of it.  Based on this travesty and the fact that others out there may not have heard of it either, I thought I better share.

FreeRice is a simple (but not always easy) multiple choice game from the UN World Food Program.  For every answer you get correct, 10 grains of rice are donated to those in need in an effort to end world hunger.  10 grains may not sound like much, but it certainly adds up–I managed 2000 just this morning.  Moreover, FreeRice makes this point on their site:

The rice you donate makes a huge difference to the person who receives it.

According to the United Nations, 25,000 people die every day from hunger or hunger-related causes, most of them children.

Though 10 grains of rice may seem like a small amount, it is important to remember that while you are playing, so are thousands of other people at the same time. It is everyone together that makes the difference. Thanks to you, FreeRice has generated enough rice to feed millions of people since it started in October 2007.

FreeRice was one of the few “games” students were allowed to play online at the school I previous worked at, and for good reason:

Learning new vocabulary has tremendous benefits. It can help you:

• Formulate your ideas better
• Write better papers, emails and business letters
• Speak more precisely and persuasively
• Comprehend more of what you read
• Read faster because you comprehend better
• Get better grades in high school, college and graduate school
• Score higher on tests like the SAT, GRE, LSAT and GMAT
• Perform better at job interviews and conferences
• Sell yourself, your services, and your products better
• Be more effective and successful at your job (from FreeRice.com)

Also, I just discovered this morning that in addition to English vocabulary, FreeRice has categories for Art (Famous Paintings), Chemistry, English Grammar, Geography, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Basic Math and the Multiplication Table.  Something for everyone!

So really, what do you have to lose?  More than likely, you’re wasting plenty of time online.  Make some of it count by donating rice to those in need.