As frequent readers know, I cross-post my blog to Glipho. As frequent readers also know, Sara is a frequent participant of the Chicago Food Swap, and I usually post a recap of what we traded after she attends one. Recently, these two things came together in the perfect storm of awesomeness.

Sam, a friend over at A Few Fine Things read the most recent food swap write up and was so inspired that she decided to bring the concept over the pond, and start her very own food swap in Manchester, England!

Shane Halbach is a favourite blogger of mine. He has an amazing outlook on life and he and his family are a constant source of inspiration to me, his Baconfest for example…..

So every few months Shane blogs about his wife Sara participating in a Chicago Food Swap. A delicious concept where food-lovers gather to exchange homemade goods. No cash is exchanged and no goods are sold. In silent auction format, homemade goodies change hands; bread for cheese, cheese for jam, jam for peanut butter, peanut butter for houmous….. the combination and swaps are never ending. The end result is a happy community with happy tummies.

What an amazing concept.

So after searching for a Manchester Food Swap (there isn’t one) and a chat with Shane I have decided to bite the bullet and start one up.

Whaaaaaat? How awesome is that.

Since the time of that announcement, Sam’s been a busy bee. She’s got a date and a venue for the first swap. She’s getting interviewed for the local paper. She’s set up a website, a blog, a Facebook, and a Twitter account. This is happening for REAL, yo.

As much as I’d like to take all the credit, the credit is really Sam and all of the hard work she’s put into organizing the event. A million times an hour someone sees something on the Internet that’s cool, but they don’t go DO anything about it. Sam’s the one in a million who actually did. Even the inspiration credit goes to the Chicago Food Swap for organizing such a great event in the first place. Me writing the blog post was really the least part of it.

So why am I so excited about this?

Actually, I’m not really sure. Partially because I just get so excited when anybody around me is creating something. It often happens that I get more excited about something than the person who is actually *doing* the something, which can be a little awkward. But in this case, Sam is WAY more excited and committed than I am, which just makes the whole thing even more exciting.

Aside from that, blogging is such an inherently useless activity; pushing bits around on a computer screen without any hope for anything real to come out of it. This is one of those rare, shining cases where something in the world changed because of words. My words! That feels amazing. I could have lifted the stone, but I didn’t. I could have fashioned the lever, but I didn’t. But I did play my small part, and afterwards there was a real, tangible result. The stone was moved. Who’s to say my hand on the lever was any less important than any of the other pieces?

Alright, you’re right, it was totally me. I DO take all the credit.

I wish I could do more to help out. As far as I know, I don’t have any readers in Manchester to send to the food swap. But on the off chance someone is in a position to signal boost this, please do!