Go Human Go!

Maybe by now you have heard (or seen) Quaker Oats' new campaign Go Human Go, touting the many benefits of oat-based foods (filling, tasty, and, important these days, economical). I was honored to be invited by Alpha Mom Isabel Kallman to participate along with several other bloggers to help launch the campaign in Times Square this past Monday (l to r: me, Looky Daddy, Ask Moxie, Alpha Mom, Mommy Poppins, Foodmomiac, and The Motherhood).


We ate oatmeal for breakfast (the president of Quaker Oats handed me mine) and then hopped onto these exercise bikes attached to blenders making pear ginger smoothies (the faster you pedal, the smoother your smoothie). They tasted pretty good:


And, big kudos to Quaker Oats for its Quaker Go Project, in which it will donate up to 1 million servings of Quaker products to Share our Strength, an organization which helps feed hungry families across the country.

After Time Square, we headed to the Bronx to the Food Bank for NYC to sort and package all types of food to be distributed to various NYC food pantries (a Food Bank staff member told us that, not surprisingly, food pantries are overwhelmed by need right now, and there is a 35% increase in the number of college-educated adults showing up in search of food).

This was an incredible experience- though I had volunteered in soup kitchens before, I had never been to a food bank- and this is QUITE a food bank (90,000 square feet- the largest in the country). In just an hour there, our little team packed 1155 pounds of food- the equivalent of 888 meals for hungry New Yorkers. It felt great. Plus, Quaker Oats is donating an additional $500 in the bloggers' names to local food banks in NYC. Thank you, Quaker Oats!
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You can help, too!

1) Join the Quaker Go Project. Just visit this site and enter the 12-digit UPC number under the barcode on any Quaker Oats, Quaker Instant Oatmeal, Quaker Oatmeal Squares, Quaker Life or Quaker Chewy package. Super easy!
2) Support Food Bank for NYC, the largest food bank in the U.S. Their website has a whole bunch of ways you can help, including online donations and virtual food drives.

P.S. Also, some trivia for you. Did you know that orange is the color for hunger awareness? And that the white-haired Quaker Oats icon guy is called "Larry"? Now you know.