Two years ago I was welcomed with open arms into a family… a blogosphere family that is. This family consists of numerous food bloggers from around the world who have the same insane passion for cooking, baking and photographing all things yummy like I do. We are stay at home mothers, engineers, ranchers, doctors, nurses, entrepreneurs, the list actually can go on and on, but the one thing in common we all have is food blogging. Now you may be wondering the point I am trying to make but its quite simple really, food blogging has become my extended family. Friendships have been formed and nurtured through blogging worldwide. It’s an amazing thing to see how many people will bind together for those in need.
A perfect example how friends worldwide have come together to help a fellow blogger in need, Jennifer Perillo from In Jennie’s Kitchen, lost her husband unexpectedly two weeks ago due to a heart attack. Just out of the blue he was there and then gone the next. I cannot even fathom the feeling of loss Jennie and her two precious girls 3 and 8 are going through. Two fridays ago Jennie asked for all fellow foodies to make a Peanut Butter Pie in memory of Mikey, #apieformikey.
“As I spend Friday reflecting on the love and life that was gone in an instant, I’d like to invite all of you to celebrate his life too. Mikey loved peanut butter cream pie. I haven’t made it in a while, and I’ve had it on my to-do list for a while now.
I kept telling myself I would make it for him tomorrow. Time has suddenly stood still, though, and I’m waiting to wake up and learn to live a new kind of normal. For those asking what they can do to help my healing process, make a peanut butter pie this Friday and share it with someone you love. Then hug them like there’s no tomorrow because today is the only guarantee we can count on.”
It was pretty amazing to see so many Peanut Butter Pies on fellow food blogs, Twitter, Facebook, The FoodNetwork, and CNN. So many people wanted to show Jennie that eventhough they may not know her personally her story touched us all and we were there for her especially to provide love and support through such a hard time. For some this wasn’t enough and decided to start a Fund for Jennie.
From Shauna Ahern of Gluten Free girl:
“As you can imagine, Jennie is overwhelmed not only by her grief, and the sudden responsibility of raising two children by herself, but she is also struggling with this financially. She just learned that she cannot collect widow’s benefits from Social Security because she earns too much money each year. The health insurance for her and her kids runs out in December and she just learned that the total she will have to pay will be more than her mortgage. It’s possible she’ll have to pay off the entire mortgage in one lump sum because the apartment was in his name alone.
And more than anything, Mikey wanted Jennie to continue living her dream of being a food writer. And he wanted to make sure his kids were taken care of well. That’s why he worked as hard as he did.
So we want to help. And we hope you want to help too.”
With the help of three amazing food bloggers, Maggie Keet of ThreeManyCooks, Erica Pineda-Ghanny of Ivory Hut, and Aimee Wimbush-Bourque of Simple Bites, have created a wonderful charity called Bloggers without Borders, a community that aims to help those who cannot help themselves.
I hope that you will help all of us help Jennie and her girls. Just click the button and it will take you directly to Paypal where you can give whatever you can afford.
All donations will go directly to Jennie. Also please check out some exciting services other bloggers are donating and auctioning off, click here for list.
Now hug and kiss your family, tell them how much you love them and let’s help Jennie and hers.
