Gregory Pyne writes: I am pleased to announce the formation of a Ringers fundraising group here in the Orlando area called Hobbit Meals. Hobbit Meals centers itself around a love and passion for all things Lord of the Rings, while at the same time generating money and foods for local food banks and charities. Since we are just getting started, our operation is quite simple. We host Hobbit Meal events where Lord of the Rings fans come to enjoy the movies and a full Hobbit-style spread of food over the course of a day (Hobbits, as written by J.R.R. Tolkien, were known to eat up to six meals a day).
Price of admission is $10 and/or two full bags of groceries to be donated to a local food bank, in this case, Second Harvest of Central Florida.
Our philosophy is quite simple as well. Tolkien created the Shire and hobbits as an idealized society where there was peace and plenty across the land. We want to bring that idea to the world as a whole. What if everyone in our community could eat like a hobbit? In truth, everyone should be able to; thus, the idea of Hobbit Meals arose.
MISSION STATEMENT
Concerning Hobbits:
“Their faces were as a rule good-natured rather than beautiful, broad, bright-eyed, red-cheeked, with mouths apt to laughter, and to eating and drinking. And laugh they did, and eat, and drink, often and heartily, being fond of simple jests at all times, and of six meals a day (when they could get them). They were hospitable and delighted in parties, and in presents, which they gave away freely and eagerly accepted.” – from The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
Hobbit Meals is convinced that the world once again needs hobbits. No, it’s not a Ring this time. And Old Sharkey’s gone up in a grey mist. But there’s another evil that dominates the land. Hunger.
Consider these statistics:
An estimated 963 million people in the world go hungry. Each year, 3 million children under five years old die because they are undernourished. Far more children live with malnutrition than die from it. For infants and young children, the effects of chronic malnutrition in the early years of life are largely irreversible.
In the United States, 11.7 million children live in households where people have to skip meals or eat less to make ends meet. That means one in ten households in the U.S. are living with hunger or are at risk of hunger (more information at here).
This is quite a contrast from the Shire and the life of the average hobbit. The Shire is a land of peace and a land of plenty. A land of growth and green. It is J. R.R. Tolkien’s vision of the ideal world. And looking at our world as it is today, I think we could also look at it as Tolkien’s challenge. There is no such thing as a hungry hobbit in the Shire.
Because I think you would agree that any hobbit would say that an empty stomach is just…Evil.
Thus, Hobbit Meals. A small, furry step to ending hunger in our own world. Because the world should eat like a hobbit.
What can you do?
Donate! Come to the 1st Ever Hobbit Meals Moot on September 19th in Orlando, FL! Start a Hobbit Meals Chapter in your hometown! Email us with your ideas, your best hobbit recipes, your thoughts, your passion.
Folks can also email me at hobbitmeals@gmail.com
Hobbit Meals is dedicated to feeding the hungry in our local communities by hosting “Hobbit Meals,” in which a group gathers to enjoy a hobbit feast, share hobbit recipes, and enjoy all things Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, as well as bring donated food to supply local food banks. Monetary donations are also encouraged to provide local food banks with overhead costs and additional monies for food.
Because I think Elrond said it best when he said “This is the hour of the Shire-folk, when they arise from their quiet fields to shake the towers and the counsels of the Great.”
Defeat evil. Feed the world.
Because the world should eat like a hobbit.
