Dear friends,

This is a thank you note to our donors & supporters whose faith and kind supports have made it possible for Omar Niode Foundation to implement its 2013 Programs in agriculture, food and culinary arts.

To help with the Foundation’s fund raising, a friend of the Foundation, Mr. Nicholas Liew who resides in the United Kingdom sent us regular donations for 2013 while Mr. Michael Wietecha in the United States arranged for fund raising events in California. 

The Potato Head contributed parts of its proceed for a promotional event in September with Tomas Estes, the Tequila Ambassador.

The Cook Shop a brand of Japfa Group, Dilmah Tea, Coffesso Coffee and Highland Vegetables provided products for Omar Niode Foundation’s Charity Brunch in December.

The funds raised in 2013 enabled Omar Niode Foundation to award 15 thesis scholarships for students at Universitas Gorontalo, 5 students from Institut Pertanian Bogor Bogor Agricultural University) , and 5 students from Sekolah Tinggi Pariwisata (Bandung Institute of Tourism). More funds are also available for partial travel awards.

Our volunteer bloggers created 90 blog posts for www.omarniode.org published during January – December 2013, including guest blog posts from China, South Africa and the United States.

Aside from writing about Indonesian agriculture, food and culinary arts, in 2013 we had chance to write about events, travel and resto reviews in Bellagio, Bonn, London, Marrakech, Nashville, Melbourne, Phuket, San Francisco, Santorini, Siem Riep, Singapore, Southampton, Warsaw, and Washington, D.C.

Click here to see all the blog posts.

We are happy to inform you that The Association of Food Bloggers, a US based entity with a goal to qualify reputable Food Bloggers and serve as a community to exchange valuable information, has listed our site in their International Directory.

To become listed members, food bloggers have to meet many criteria, including: blog must be food related in nature with useful information, must be in existence for 12 months with consistent posting with an average of at least 4 posts per month.

In September we joined the Kitchen Reader an online food book club for bloggers from all over the world,  and every month post the review on the blog. We may join other book clubs this January.

We published one book: Singkong & Yogurt to be launched soon. This eCookBook by Indonesian Foodblogger Group is a compilation of recipes from a challenge to create food, drink and snack, using singkong (cassava) and yogurt as ingredients.

The Omar Niode Foundation participated in a number of big and small events either as organizer, speaker, partner or sponsor. Through these national and international events we were able to introduce the Foundation, to establish networks and to collaborate for more meaningful activities.

In February we organized Patali (Market) Day. Agriculture, Food and Culinary Celebration, supported by a total of 30 entities. It was an event that gathered various communities including representatives of producers, consumers, supporting businesses, chefs, bloggers, photography enthusiasts, culinary and hospitality students, the media and anyone who cares about Indonesian agriculture, food and culinary arts. The event was covered in more than 50 press articles and blog posts and 1000 tweets.

The first anniversary of our blog in April coincided with the annual meeting of The International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) meeting in San Francisco. We had a table at the IACP Book & Blog Festival, displaying Omar Niode Foundation’s latest book: 50 Appetizing Snippets. Agriculture, Food and Culinary Muse.

In May, some of us were in Melbourne for climate change programs and we celebrated the Food Revolution Day by cooking Indonesian dinner with Green Teachers Indonesia. The food Revolution Day is a global campaign initiated by Chef Jamie Oliver to get people better connected to their food.

On World Environment Day in June the Foundation collaborated with the Indonesian Biodiversity Foundation, Mongabay Indonesia and SAE Jakarta to screen clips of Taste the Waste, a documentary about global food waste and followed by discussions on what we can do about it.

As we did in the previous years, during the holy month of Ramadan in August we invited children and teens from Yayasan Baitul Qur’an Orphanage to break the fast and do some group praying.

September was an exciting month when we collaborated with Heavenly Blush Yogurt and the Indonesian Food Blogger Group (IDFB), inviting IDFB members to create recipes for food, drink and snack with singkong (cassava) and yogurt as main ingredients.

In celebration of Singkong Day, a campaign to eat cassava every October 7th of the year, the Omar Niode Foundation invited Mak Tuo to give a Rendang Singkong cooking demo at the second Organic Green and Healthy Expo.

The Ubud Readers and Writes Festival in October gathered accomplished writers, performers, artists, musicians and visionaries to the magical setting of Ubud, to speak across all forms of storytelling. It had quite a number of remarkable food events; hence Omar Niode Foundation participated as one of the Festival friends.

To commemorate the 6th National Bloggers Day, at the end of October we organized bloggers super brunch at The Dharmawangsa Hotel, gathering inspirational bloggers, mostly movers and shakers of blogger or food communities, to get to know each other, share knowledge, and discuss about future culinary ideas for social purposes

Please click here to see the video clips of our main events in 2013.

We thank you so much for your continuous support in 2013 with hope that you will still be with us in implementing our great plans for 2014.

-----------------------------

Images: Aapthamithra, Ribah /Shutterstock, Omar Niode Foundation.