It’s A FamilyFarmed Birthday Fundraising Faceoff! 

FamilyFarmed founder and CEO Jim Slama’s birthday is Nov. 16, and we were preparing to ask our supporters to make a donation to our Good Food non-profit in honor of Jim’s big day. But when FamilyFarmed Communications Manager Bob Benenson — whose birthday is Nov. 14 — got wind of it, he graciously responded, “What about me?!”

Now two things that FamilyFarmed and Scorpios have in common is that they are 1) passionate and 2) highly competitive. So Bob threw down the gauntlet and challenged Jim to the first-ever FamilyFarmed Birthday Fundraising Faceoff.

If you want to make a tax-deductible contribution to Team Jim, click here.

If you want to make a tax-deductible contribution to Team Bob, click here.

All proceeds from this title bout will go toward advancing FamilyFarmed’s mission of helping create a better food system — we work with food and farm entrepreneurs who are producing as locally as possible, using sustainable, humane and fair practices, to help expand markets for delicious and nutritious Good Food. 

There are no losers. O.K., there might be a side wager involving a bottle of whiskey from Chicago’s Koval Distillery. And there might be a little trash talking going on.

“Nov. 14 is National Guacamole Day and National Pickle Appreciation Day,” said Bob. “Nov. 16 is National Fast Food Day. So you tell me whose birthday is rocking Good Food.

Jim noted that Bob is fairly new to Good Food advocacy in Chicago, having moved here six years ago after a long career as a political journalist in Washington. “I was building the Good Food cluster in Chicago when Bob still needed a paper map to keep from getting lost,” Jim said. “I’m happy to have had the opportunity to teach him everything he knows about Good Food.”

The truth is that this is just a fun idea we concocted to kick off our year-end fundraising campaign, which will continue with Giving Tuesday on November 28. Your contributions are welcome and will fund our vision of Good Food on Every Table.

Make your favorite known, make a contribution before these champs throw in the towel until next year!  (Remember to choose your favorite on the last screen of the donation screen prompts)