Ending Childhood Hunger One State at a Time

By Patrick Chang April 28, 2010 0 Comments

Always wanted an excuse to get out of Manhattan? Hereâ€™s your chance to be pampered with some amazing events, beverages, and delicious food in New Jersey, but also support Share our Strength. Let out your inner aficionado this weekend, April 30th â€“ May 2nd, 2010 at the second annual New Jersey Food & Wine Festival at luxurious Crystal Springs Resort in Hardyston, NJ . The three-day fÃªte is an ode to the grape with exciting events like the Dom Perignon dinner hosted by Chef Paul Liebrandt of Corton and various wine seminars. Other highlights include delicious wine pairings and even a celebrity chef and winemaker golf tournament.

This event is a celebration of the worldâ€™s best wines and top local chefs from New Jersey and New York. New Jersey has been getting a bad rap for countless years which has been magnified by MTVâ€™s Jersey Shore. But New Jersey Food & Wine Festival at Crystal Springs Resort will blow away all preconceived notion of New Jersey. This weekendâ€™s event is designed to allow connoisseurs to meet and mingle with chefs, winemakers, sommeliers and fellow wine aficionados. The events will include a grand tasting, charity dinner and wine auction, exclusive wine cellar dinners with vertical wine pairings, seminars with winemakers and chefs, and a celebrity chef golf tournament. All this goodness for a great cause! Feel Good about Food!

A portion of the weekend’s proceeds benefit Share Our Strength, the leading national organization with the mission of making sure no kids in America grows up hungry. Much like one of the main missions of CMOM, Share Our Strength is also tackling the issue of childhood nutrition, but from a different angle. Share Our Strength catches children who are struggling with hunger and ensures they have nutritious food where they live, learn and play.

This event is a great kick off to Appetite for Goodâ€™s nationwide coverage of Share Our Strengthâ€™s Taste of the Nation, premier culinary benefit in Houston, NYC, and LA. Share Our Strength works closely with the culinary industry to create innovative programs in tackling the issue at hand. Through programs such as Great American Bake SaleÂ®, a national grassroots effort; A Tasteful PursuitÂ®, a touring dinner series; Great American Dine OutÂ®, a week-long program involving thousands of restaurants nationwide; and Operation FrontlineÂ®, a cooking-based nutrition education program. Through these programs, Share Our Strength raises funds to support No Kid Hungryâ„¢, a national campaign to end childhood hunger in America by 2015.

Appetite for Good had an opportunity to sit down with Director of Share our Strength NYC, Jenny Dirksen and Robby Younes, Regional Food & Beverage Director, Crystal Springs Resort to ask a few important questions about the event and also the cause it supports.

Why is childhood hunger such an important issue?
Jenny: Nearly 17 million children in America struggle with hunger. Thatâ€™s almost 1 of 4 kids, in the worldâ€™s wealthiest nation. Their families donâ€™t have the means to put enough nutritious food on the table every day for them to thrive.

Research tells us that even slight experiences with hunger can leave lasting negative impressions that impair health, learning and well-being. Hungry kidsâ€¦

â€¦are sick more often, recover more slowly, and are more likely to be hospitalized.
â€¦are also more susceptible to obesity and its harmful health consequences.
â€¦are less able to concentrate and perform well in school.
â€¦have more behavioral and emotional problems.

And young children who donâ€™t get enough healthy food cannot learn as much, as fast or as well as their well-nourished friends. In effect, a person who struggles with hunger as a child is likely to suffer life-long disadvantages.

What initiatives do the event proceeds support?
Jenny: The funds raised through the New Jersey Wine and Food Festival will support No Kid Hungryâ„¢, Share Our Strengthâ€™s national campaign to end childhood hunger in America by 2015. Through No Kid Hungry, Share Our Strength ensures children in need are enrolled in effective federal nutrition programs, invests in community organizations fighting hunger, teaches families how to cook healthy meals on a budget, and builds public-private partnerships to end hunger, both nationally and at the state level.

Why was Share Our Strength picked as the nonprofit beneficiary?
Robby: The Festival wanted to choose a charity that had a strong culinary connection and Share Our Strength is dedicated to an important cause – eradicating child hunger in the U.S.

Sommelier Taste-Off sounds like an interesting event! what was the inspiration behind the event?
Robby: The Sommelier Taste-Off was inspired by the wine cellar at Restaurant Latour and Crystal Springs Resort. At over 78,000 bottles, the cellar is the result of our owner Gene Mulvihill’s passion for wine and has been collected over four decades. We wanted to create a signature wine event for the Festival so we decided to do a comparison of highly rated premier crus of Bordeaux vs. cult California wines. Gene has chosen the wines personally and the list is top secret – all I can say is we will taste at least five 100 point wines (Robert Parker and Wine Spectator ratings).

You have an amazing line up of chefs participating in the event! What draws them to the NJ festival? what are some of the important causes they support?
Robby: The New Jersey Food & Wine Festival is designed to be the premier wine event in New Jersey, with top wineries and champagne houses including Krug, Sassicaia, Cheval Blanc, Chateau d Y’quem, Dom Perignon, Penfolds Grange and many more participating. To match the high level of wines, we invited top chefs to New York and New Jersey and we were excited to have their support for this event.

I have found that chefs are always eager to support important causes, especially ones that relate to providing meals to the less fortunate such as Share Our Strength, Foodbank, Citymeals-on-Wheels and City Harvest. We were very pleased to partner with Share Our Strength for this event.

Help support Share our Strength initiatives by attending these wonderful line up of amazing events! The Festival features a number of wine-centered events and guest chefs from Le Cirque, Maialino, Corton, Restaurant Serenade, Gramercy Tavern, Ninety Acres at Natirar and more. These unique events will feature library and rare wines from such renowned wineries as Cheval Blanc, Sassicaia, Dom Perignon, Penfolds Grange, Krug, Chateau d’Yquem and more.

More information and tickets, go to the event website or call 973-827-5996 ext 3. Multi-event packages are also available. Crystal Springs Resort is located 3 Wild Turkey Way, Hardyston, NJ.

Photos from last year’s Festival