Gluten Free Girl, did not get her eating tour, has been trying to adopt a sibling for her biological child for a couple of years now. After many “possibilities” that didn’t work out due to things like having to refuse an interested birth mother “because we would be in Italy when the baby was born”, Shauna finally got an email about a newborn in the ICU:

By the time we were home, 5 minutes later, I knew that this was a reparable condition, in most cases. It meant weeks, if not months, in the ICU and hospital but, in most cases, it meant a normal life afterward. And it had to do with the intestines and feeding. That seemed fitting for us.

After waiting all night and day, Shauna was informed the birth parents had selected another family for their baby. This caused Shauna to break down:

We’ve been actively waiting in a pool of families ready to adopt for nearly a year. And we’re still waiting…How could it be this hard? How much more heartbreak can we take?…Adoption is so utterly heartbreaking…And knowing that now, I also know that we cannot keep offering you food unless you know there’s some sorrow in it too.

So…yeah. That saga continues.

Shauna James Ahern, totally expert cooking instruction giver over at Gluten Free Girl, wants to write a fourth cookbook called American Classics, Reinvented. Apparently no other person anywhere has provided recipes on how to make “classic” American food in a gluten free manner, and Shauna and her dirty-fingernailed chef husband want to fill that void.

Obviously they can’t just buy a few Good Housekeeping cookbooks from the 1940s and go grocery shopping. No, they need to “experience” the food. In order to make that happen, they are asking the internets to give them $15,000 so they can drive around the US eating food:

We want to sit in barbecue joints in North Carolina, eat dim sum in San Francisco, make pie with wild Maine blueberries, drizzle honey on warm sopapillas in Santa Fe, and watch pizza being fired in great places in Brooklyn. Of course, Shauna can’t eat any of this. But Danny and Lucy can. And Shauna can take photographs, talk to the chefs, and take notes.

The book already has a publisher and the pair have even received an advance, but they are quashing any questions about why they can’t fund this themselves by saying “This idea of traveling through the country to experience the food where it’s made? It’s our idea, not the kind publishers pay for, really” (I guess she’s never heard of ‘Eat, Pray, Love’?). And to cover all their bases, they’ve warned you that even if they get the $15k, “Life could happen” delaying the nomtrip.

After her behavior during the Hot Widow Boots donation scandal one has to wonder who on earth would want to hand over free cash to this woman just so she can indulge in what amounts to a gastro-vacation.

Mary Rambin clearly doesn’t care for bad standup comedians, as she wants to remove the one reliable joke they’ve ever had. Today on her More than Mary blog Rambin decided to take on airline food:

When we go to their airport, we walk down an aisle of fast food and are forced to choose between the lesser of many evils – processed snacks, frozen and then fried meals, food infused with preservatives, sterilized or canned veggies, over-sized desserts, and candy bars galore.

Or you can just bring food from home if you don’t like the options at the airport. You’re not forced to buy anything there. Plus “their” airport? Whose airport are you referring to?

Carrying my homemade salad, I pass by these “restaurants” feeling so bad for people who travel often.  They have no choice but to consume this crap.  Then I think about how uneducated people are surrounding what they eat.  Even if there were fresh options, would they chose them?  Finally I come to, it’s a shame this is all a money game.  Processed food lasts longer and is cheaper than fresh food so the margin is higher for the airport and businesses.  OR IS IT??!

Jesus Christ what? She’s going for the “oh the poor stupid masses” argument? Why is it so hard to believe that some people eat at these restaurants because they actually enjoy the food? Am I wrong in thinking it is possible to acknowledge something is unhealthy but still consume it because it tastes good? I guess I am, obviously the only reason anyone would eat at a fast food restaurant is because they’re too stupid to know better. Never fear however, Rambin has a solution!

Farmers produce TONS of crop they are dying to sell to sustain their business.  The airport has a high demand for food, turns it over quickly, and sells it at high profit margin.  What if the farmers created fresh meals everyday and came to sell them at booths in the airport?  Since they wouldn’t need a kitchen or much manpower, the airports would generate a bigger profit.  Travelers could then choose from a variety of fresh and healthy foods!

Put the current food vendors aside; they’ve had their hayday.  Imagine they’re gone.  All that is left are magazine stands and retailers.  Now, fill up the old McDonald’s and Taco Bell that used to be dishing out deep-fried fat with friendly faces handing over sliced meat sandwiches and tossed salads.  Baked potatoes, chilled veggie sides, and homemade pastries are other options for you.  Each booth has a different flavor:  Mexican, Italian, Greek, BBQ, etc.  Everything was locally grown  then washed and sliced that day before being made into a hand-crafted meal just for you.  Take your meal to a group of tables or a bar nearby and enjoy!

Now my mind is going wild with ideas of developing the area around airports to support this concept.  Farmers would plant their crops nearby; community kitchens open to prepare the meals; airlines join in and have their planes stocked with the local food.

Really now, how many airports are located near enough to fertile farmland to actually make this a remotely feasible idea? Plus I’m not sold on this Crunchy Granola Utopian ideal of “smiling faces serving out hand-crafted meals just for you.” Does Rambin have any idea how much manpower that would require? Community kitchens? Who’s going to staff them? More to the point, does she even know how much farmland would be needed to grow enough crops to serve Greek, Mexican, BBQ (you need land for livestock to graze on as well), and whatever the else she’s thinking of to stock an entire airport and the planes in it?

Here’s the thing: I have no problem with encouraging people to be more conscious of the food they consume. It’s a good goal and one that more people should focus on. However, casual condescension followed by a highly unrealistic idea about somehow growing enough fresh food near an airport to feed the people who use it really isn’t the way to go. However, I regularly eat greasy pizza, hamburgers, and french fries so I’m clearly too uneducated to even comment on this. What do the healthy people think?

Shauna Ahern, the “Gluten Free Girl“, apparently feels she is being mistreated due to the Widow Donation ruckus. She is using her facebook page to air her hurt feelings and absolve herself of full blame. She even claims she is being singled out for abuse:

Unfortunately, there has been so much nastiness with this. Some of the same people who have attacked me for years, which I wrote about recently, have seem to be spearheading this. It’s bullying.

When asked why the widow keeps insisting she had no knowledge despite all evidence to the contrary, Shauna (who was herself responsible for posting that the widow was months from destitution) replied by saying, in nutshole, that she must be a little out of her mind:

We have been trying not to address it because we wanted to protect Jennie. I don’t know why she is saying this. But I can tell you categorically that she was part of all of this. She and I spoke every day during those first weeks. And if she had ever asked us to stop, we would have stopped. All I know is that grief does wild things to people. We wish her peace.

It seems these people are all throwing each other under the bus and it has come down to who you choose to believe. Since I don’t have any side here, I can tell you what I do know: the facts show clearly that the widow knew what was going on and even promoted it on her facebook and twitter, and made no effort to correct the wild dramatic pleas made by Gluten Free Girl. This Gluten Free Girl seemingly only got involved to up her own profile by playing the angelic savior of the popular widow. And Bloggers Without Borders is run by a bunch of incompetent bloggers with no nonprofit administration or public relations experience.

The food blogger community continues to compare notes on where the blame should lie. The bottom line is none of those involved have any claim to innocence at this point, and it’s pretty clear none of them intend to come clean and make it right. What a great “community”!

EDIT: GFG Shauna has now deleted the facebook entry with her comments. Luckily a GOMIBLOG commenter had already pasted the thread here if you’re interested.

Five days after the internet began to question the fundraising activities on behalf of Jennifer Perillo, rumors are swirling that despite her protestations of ignorance and innocence she was aware of the fundraiser and even provided information to the campaign.

Jennifer attempted to address the confusion on her own blog but her comments seem to have raised more doubts about her level of culpability:

I had hoped to not have to disclose any of the personal dealings I’ve had with Bloggers without Borders over the last 72 hours. The coordinators no doubt had sincere intentions when launching the Fund for Jennie campaign, but you should be aware that I had no involvement in how the project was presented to the general public.

As you might imagine having lost my husband I was a little busy grieving and caring for our daughters. If you hadn’t noticed I still am grieving, yet choosing to share my experiences in hopes it helps others. To make an accusation against me without asking is a bit unfair, don’t you think?

That said, I am sure this is a question others may be wondering. It is for that reason that I will share with you my own disappointment in the misrepresentation of my financial situation. When the idea of a fundraiser was first mentioned to me, I said repeatedly that I was in no immediate financial need. I said there were many other people suffering far beyond myself.

Still, I was told people wanted to do something, to help me directly in some way, so I said if it made people feel like they could help, donations could be made towards my daughters’ college education. I do not know why the initial post didn’t reflect the reality, but you need to understand that I was not involved and cannot bear any responsibility. Would it have made a difference in the amount raised had the post been written to accurately reflect the fundraiser—that is something I can’t answer. I do know, and agree with you, that people had the right to be better informed

Unfortunately, none of this came to my attention until after the fact. I asked BwoB to donate a portion of the funds to a foundation that helps widows and widowers in true financial need. As of this past week, I even implored them to please donate all the funds to that charity. My request was denied. I was told by their Board of Directors that by law they were legally bound to distribute the funds as the donors had directed. If you contributed, or anyone else who reads this comment donated, you should contact BwoB regarding a refund. I do not know if this possible.

In sharing this information, I will also say that I will not publish any further comments of this nature. My blog is not the place to have this conversation. Any issues with how the fundraiser was presented, is an issue the donors need to discuss with BwoB. I regret having to cast any doubts on BwoB, but my feeling is that if even 1% of the people who donated to the fund feel betrayed, then they deserve a proper explanation.

So it seems her daughters’ college fund account info was available to the Bloggers Without Borders campaign directors, who chose to present the campaign with a word from Shauna of “Gluten Free Girl”:

As you can imagine, Jennie is overwhelmed not only by her grief, and the sudden responsibility of raising two children by herself, but she is also struggling with this financially. She just learned that she cannot collect widow’s benefits from Social Security because she earns too much money each year. The health insurance for her and her kids runs out in December and she just learned that the total she will have to pay will be more than her mortgage. It’s possible she’ll have to pay off the entire mortgage in one lump sum because the apartment was in his name alone.

And more than anything, Mikey wanted Jennie to continue living her dream of being a food writer. And he wanted to make sure his kids were taken care of well. That’s why he worked as hard as he did.”

This fund will help Jennie to do just that: to continue to work and take care of the girls with some peace of mind.

Doubts are being raised as to Jennifer’s actual knowledge about the direction the campaign had decided to go – apparently because despite claiming she was busy grieving with her daughters, her twitter feed was full of proof that she was online and busy informing people of her shopping habits and links to her blog. Many people seem to think at any time she could have addressed the claims of dire need and cleared up any confusion about the exact nature and intended use of the donations, but did not, thus any claims of no fault are ridiculous.

What do you think of all this? Do you blame BWoB simply because Jennifer is a widow, do you have doubts but think it crass to express them because of her recent loss? Or does the whole situation make you question everyone involved? More importantly, how should BWoB handle this situation, since no matter what you think of the widow, they were responsible for the public push for donations?

Jennifer Perillo, a food blogger, recently lost her husband. Given the impression that his death had left her and her two small daughters nearly destitute, the tightly knit food blogging community generously banded together to raise over $60,000 to help support her in her widowhood.

Well it turns out the fundraising group allegedly overstated the extent of her financial need. Commenters on a post about how she’s grieving through food are practically accusing her of fraud:

“I agree that Jennifer does have the right to grieve in her own way, and there’s nothing wrong with traveling or spending her own money how she sees fit.
The problem is that people were led to believe that she and her daughters were in immediate financial crisis.  People donated $70k because it was implied that they were losing their health insurance and their home!  It’s evident from her tweets that she’s not only not in any financial crisis, but that she has plenty of disposable income and is probably much better off than many of the people who donated.  I think it’s morally wrong to trick people into donating money.  She should have returned it to the donors or given it to charity.”

“You’re right… I’ve never walked in her $800 boots. Perhaps she’d like to step out in my $13 Keds? Shauna Ahern told people she was LOSING HER HOME. I wonder how many would have donated to her “fund” if they had known the truth of Ms. Perillo’s financial situation?”

Other commenters are defending the way Jennifer is spending her money and telling those who feel grifted…well, in a nutshole, tough luck:

“If you don’t like the way Jen is spending her money, fine. Don’t like it.  Then you shouldn’t have given her any in the first place. Not that it seems that any of you commenting gave her anything at all.  You just sound furious on principal.  Or perhaps furious out of jealousy.”

We continue to be shocked at how people get money out of people on the internet. There are good, hardworking bloggers (many unemployed – and not by choice) who can’t even manage to afford a box of ramen, and people like Anthroholic and Jennifer allegedly scam thousands out of people who trust them. With people like this supposedly bilking people left and right, no wonder it’s so hard to make money just blogging anymore.