Of all the organizations in Omaha that touch lives with food, The Food Bank has to be the one that does it in the most profound and meaningful of ways – by giving it to people that are hungry. The Food Bank will hold their annual fundraiser on February 26th which will feature the Food Network’s Cat Cora. Tickets are still available and it’s a great cause. Below is a press release about the event and I’ll have another blog later today which will be an interview I did with the Iron Chef.

  A la cuisine! The Food Bank is excited to announce that Cat Cora, the first and only female Iron Chef on the Food Network’s Iron Chef America, will host the Food Bank’s annual fundraiser next February 26.

  This is the eighth year that The Food Bank will hold its unique Fundraiser, which consists of a celebrity chef who provides a cooking demonstration of several recipes on stage, followed by a sit-down dinner and a silent auction for more than 600 attendees. The Celebrity Chef Fundraiser is presented by ConAgra Foods and sponsored by the Hawks Foundation.

  It is no surprise Cora has become a world renowned chef. With culinary aspirations beginning at an early age, she developed a business plan for her own restaurant by age 15. In 2005, Cora made culinary and television history by becoming the first female Iron Chef, and in 2006, Bon Appetit Magazine awarded her with their Teacher of the Year Award. Cora is the founder of Chefs for Humanity, an organization she formed in response to the 2004 tsunami, which provides funds, nutritional education and hunger-related initiatives around the world. Cora is also the nutritional spokesperson for UNICEF.

  The Food Bank, a non-profit organization formed in 1981, collects wholesome food products and distributes them to charities in Nebraska and western Iowa. Currently providing food to over 360 agencies including food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters and low-income day care centers, The Food Bank also acts as a clearinghouse for national food product donations for its subsidiary food banks in Kearney, Norfolk and Sioux City, Iowa.

  The Food Bank distributes food through four programs in the Omaha metropolitan area: The Food Bank for Kids BackPack Program providing weekend food for children; nine Kids Cafes providing evening meals in after school programs; the Senior Outreach Program providing bakery items and produce for low income seniors; and the newest program, The Food Bank Fresh Truck, delivering fresh fruit and vegetable snacks to low income neighborhoods. 

  To learn more about The Food Bank and to get more information on the Celebrity Chef Event, call 402-331-1213 or go to www.omahafoodbank.org.