On March 11, 2011, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake shook the ground underwateroff of the coast of Japan.

The earthquake, one of the most powerful on recorded history, rocked Northeastern Honshu, the main island of Japan, and triggered adeadly tsunami. Close to 10,000 people lost their lives. Many more thousands are missing. And, still, the devastating after affects are felt with an ongoing nuclear crisis. The recovery effort in Japan will be enormous for years to come. And we want to help.

Peko Peko: A Charity Cookbook for Japan is a collection of nearly 50 family friendly Japanese and Japanese-inspired recipes published by Blurb, 100% of the profits of which will be donated to charity relief in Japan. A joint effort between brainchild Stacie Billis of One Hungry Mama, co-conspirators Rachael Hutchings of La Fuji Mama and Marc Matsumoto of No Recipes, and a team of contributors that includes some of the most influential food bloggers and cookbook authors of this time, Peko Peko is a celebration of the Japanese people, their food and culture.

While our number one goal is to raise as much money as possible for thechildren of Japan, the creative impetus behind Peko Peko is our belief that food is a common language that brings people together. Our hope is to use food to spark meaningful connections between everyone involved — the organizers, contributors, sponsors and donors — to the people of Japan.

Our hope is that these recipes say: we are here for you Japan, with love.

About the Title

One of the ways that the Japanese language reflects Japan’s love of food is through the many words it has to imitate sounds related to food and eating. “Peko peko” is onomatopoeia for the sounds that an empty stomach makes. It’s a common way to indicate, “I’m hungry!” especially for little ones.

About Our Charity Organization

All profits from sales of Peko Peko will be donated to the GlobalGiving Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund. GlobalGiving is a foundation that gives access to new sources of funds to causes that might never be funded through traditional development and philanthropy approaches. Projects listed on GlobalGiving go through a rigorous due diligence review and, once approved, are listed on their site where they gain unprecedented access to potential donators.

GlobalGiving has been wildly successful at helping raise money for small non-profit projects and NGO’s and now, in certain cases, they’re leveraging their contacts with these smaller, on-the-ground organizations to start their own funds. The GlobalGiving Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund is one such effort for which they are regularly assessing needs in stricken areas of Japan and, at benchmarks along the way, giving to organizations meeting those needs as they change. GlobalGiving provides updates on their research and decisions on how to disseminate money on the fund’s “report” page.

Our original idea was to donate to a cause specific to children to connect with the Peko Peko focus on family-friendly food. As the crisis in Japan has unfolded, it’s become clear that the needs there will continue to change quickly. This is further complicated by the fact that Japan is a country rich in resources with strong global political ties. Though organizations like Save the Children and the Red Cross are doing critically important work on the ground, we are heartened by the chance to also help support smaller organizations and help meet changing needs—not just a single, focused one—as they arise. Especially as we hope to raise money through continued sales in the weeks, months and, hopefully, year to come.