First, two apolgies. One, for the mass message. Two, for any repeats, as I’ll be posting this on my blog, Twitter, Facebook, in emails, etc etc etc. Why? Because this is super-important to me!

Most of you know I am passionate about three things: writing, music, and food. Since the beginning of the year I’ve been lucky enough to combine those three, along with helping what I think is the most important cause that needs our attention – hunger. The bottom line is, it people don’t get their basic need for nutrition met, there’s no way they can tackle the myriad other problems we face. I have been giving 5-10 hours a week of volunteer work to a St. Louis organization called LiveFeed, which I adore. We work with the local music scene to raise funds and donations for our local food banks. With the crappy economy, food banks have been devastated. Donations are down 15% nationwide, while the number of people requiring food bank assistance has jumped by 20%. I suck at math, but even I know that those are some dire numbers.

Below is an email from our director, Amy Graham. She’s entered LiveFeed in a competition for non-profits to raise some much-needed funds. $10,000, to be exact. All we need is for you to take a few minutes, click on the link Amy’s given below, and follow the directions to register and vote for LiveFeed.
So take a gander below. If you had time to read my ramble, you’ve got time to vote. Feel free to spam your loved ones with this message. Post it on your blogs, Facebook, MySpace, message boards. Being a pain in the ass is worth it if it keeps some kids from going hungry.

Thanks my dears!
Robin

From Amy:

If you are short on time, just read this one paragraph:

LiveFeed is in an online contest to win $10,000 and we need your help. Please go to: http://ideablob.com/ideas/4445-LiveFeed-Will-Rock-for-Food-w , register for the website and then vote for LiveFeed as the best idea on the ideablob contest. If we get enough votes this week, then we make it to the finals and then we need you to vote AGAIN between February 23rd and the 28th. Votes before the 23rd do not count towards the finals, so voting between 2/23 and 2/28 is critical for us to win $10,000. This is free, easy and takes one minute.

Thank you for your support
Amy

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If you have 2 more minutes, keep reading:
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We really need your help to win this contest, so we are asking your help three more ways.

1) Make sure you vote before AND after 2/23 to get us into the finals and to win the whole thing so LiveFeed can win $10,000.

2) On February 23, please email all of your friends and encourage them to vote for LiveFeed as well. We really need votes during the finals, so emailing your friends starting 2/23 is very important. 2/27 reminders are great too!

3) Consider adding a note to your facebook status and your twitter updates, invite people to vote for LiveFeed use this URL http://ideablob.com/ideas/4445-LiveFeed-Will-Rock-for-Food-w – it costs nothing and only takes a couple minutes to register and vote.

Thanks for your support of such an amazing cause.

Sincerely,
Amy Graham