2014 Gift Guide: Day 31

Share the Wealth

Here is a remarkably simple—and smart—idea. Sharetable.org has persuaded dozens of San Francisco restaurants to donate a portion of gift certificate sales to the SF Food Bank. (Just make sure you buy the certificates through the Sharetable website, otherwise it's just a regular certificate.)

So while treating an SF-based loved one to an exquisite meal, you’re also helping feed those without enough to eat. What’s more, nearly all the best restaurants in San Francisco participate. 

What would I want? I can’t think of a better way to start off the new year than having $50 to spend over time at Humphrey Slocombe, one of this country’s great ice creameries.  

Here’s hoping Sharetable spreads to other cities in 2015. 

(Pictured above: Michael Tusk's irresistable agnolotti at Cotogna.)

If you're on the East Coast, and looking for an organization to support, I'd like to suggest my own favorite charity, Rural and Migrant Ministry, a group fighting for justice for farmworkers. 

Through their three offices around the state, RRM does advocacy, runs community education programs, and lobbies the state legislature to update the infuriatingly inept labor laws. In a time when it's estimated that at least half of the farmworkers in America are undocumented - and therefore open to exploitation - this has never been more important. Our food system cannot be sustainable until we recognize that the people who pick our food and care for our farm animals deserve decent lives. 

Learn more, and how to donate, here.