By: Gene Fisch, Jr.

Amidst a flurry of bites and the sounds of bottles uncorking, the NYCWFF (New York City Wine and Food Festival) came in New York City by storm this past weekend. To date, the NYCWFF has raised $12.5 million for The Food Bank of NewYork City and “No Kid Hungry”. Noted as New York City‘s biggest wine and food Festival no where else can New York’s foodie elite experience such a range of cuisine’s from one of the greatest food cities in the world.

The weekend held over 80 events across 35 venues presenting 500 of the top chefs from New York City’s best restaurants and celebrated Food channel personalities. This along with over 250 wines and spirits provided by southern glaziers wine and spirits made for a weekend that we will never forget supporting the fight for hunger.

Crowds converged onto the West side of Manhattan to a sampling of cuisines that spanned from pastrami’s hailing from local deli’s to curries from far away India. Cooking demonstrations were held by celebrity chefs, Andrew Zimmern, Rick Bayless, Valerie Bertinelli, Duff Goldman, Masaharu Morimoto, and a host of others over the course of the weekend.

We all need to support causes close to home such as this one. This author, like most of this weekend’s NYCWFF attendees, live in one of the most vibrant cities in the world and there is no excuse for a child in our hometown to ever be hungry. There are 13 million children in this country who go hungry; One and five children in New York City go hungry. That is unacceptable and we need to unite in this fight against a very beatable foe.