UPDATE, 12/27/08: I just want to say how happy and flattered I am for all of you who have bought a raffle ticket for this prize: As of this morning, we’ve raised more than $700 for charity! Just a reminder that despite the logo of Menu for Hope, you can still buy raffle tickets up to midnight on New Year’s Eve, so if you are thinking about dropping $10 on a chance to win some unique charcuterie, you still have time. Thanks in advance!

I know this past year has been difficult for many of us — I got laid off, to cite just one personal example — but any of you reading this are still better off than those the food blogging world, such as it is, are trying to help in this year’s Menu for Hope. Led by Chez Pim, we are trying to raise money for rural kids in Lesotho, which is tiny little country surrounded by South Africa; specifically, Menu for Hope is working with the United Nations’ World Food Program, so the money will be well-spent.

Would I rather we help those here in this country? You bet. And I am, privately. But this is one way the community can help a group of people so poor even other Africans take pity on them — I know. I’ve been there. And let me tell you, Lesotho is like the poorest piece of Appalachia stuck into the Front Range of the Rockies: the soil is poor, the altitude is high and the Lesothans are largely there because they were forced to seek sanctuary in the mountains.

The way Menu for Hope works is we each offer something that you will hopefully find of value, and you bid on it through online raffle tickets. Each ticket costs $10 and that transaction is run through the website Firstgiving.com. I bid on several items last year and did not get my card information stolen, so I can vouch for the site’s integrity.

So what am I offering? Wild game charcuterie. Yep. I will make the winner a gift basket of yummy sausage-y things that I have hunted myself. My plan is to offer the winner the following:

• Canada Goose “prosciutto”
• Wild Boar lonzino, which is air-cured pork loin (pictured above)
• Wild duck salami, done as a soppresata
• 2-3 pounds of fresh wild boar sausages, done to order — that’s right, you get to pick what kind I make.

I pretty sure I don’t need to tell you that there is nowhere else in America you can get this deal. You cannot buy true wild game — it’s illegal. The only way to get your hands on charcuterie like this is to know a hunter who can make salami: That’d be me.

So I am asking you, dear reader, to buy a raffle ticket (or 10) and bid on a collection of charcuterie that is utterly unique. If you want to put raffle ticket in for my prize, be sure to mark down my code, which is UW36. To take a look at all the other West Coast prizes, check out Matt Bites, who is hosting the Western region of Menu for Hope. (No, you do not have to live on the West Coast to enter the raffle for my prize — I’ll mail it) Here’s how you enter the raffle:

1. Choose a prize or prizes of your choice from Menu for Hope

2. Go to the donation site at Firstgiving and make a donation.

3. Each $10 you donate will give you one raffle ticket toward a prize of your choice. Please specify which prize you’d like in the ‘Personal Message’ section in the donation form when confirming your donation.
You must write-in how many tickets per prize, and please use the prize code.
For example, a donation of $50 can be 2 tickets for UW36 and 3 tickets for EU02. Please write 2xUW36, 3xEU02

4. If the company you work for matches your charity donation, please check the box and fill in the information so we could claim the corporate match.

5. Please allow us to see your email address so that we could contact you in case you win. Your email address will not be shared with anyone.

Please think seriously about helping us out this season. If you can only afford one $10 ticket, that’s OK. If you can afford more, even better. Happy holidays, and good luck!