When Hurricane Florence battered the Carolinas in the southeastern US, videos and news reports depicted the devastation that the storm wrought on the coastal communities directly in the path of the hurricane. Inland areas were also affected by the flooding that resulted from the record amounts of rain that poured down nonstop for days following the storm, but they did not receive as much attention from the press. What's worse, many of the inland residents did not have flood insurance, because they lived in areas that were not usually affected to this extent by hurricanes. Many people lost everything in the floods. 

As Country As Cornbread cookbook

That's where North Carolina chefs, including Vivian Howard, come into the picture. Howard raised funds for the relief and rebuilding effort by selling a limited edition tee shirt on her site. The tee shirt reads "As Country as Cornbread." Building on the success of that fundraiser, Jamie Holcomb, Lynn Wells, and Jenni Field of the North Carolina Chapter of  Les Dames d'Escoffier International teamed up with additional chefs, restaurateurs, and food writers around the Carolinas for another project - an eCookbook also called As Country As Cornbread.

Contributors include respected southern chefs like Nathalie Dupree, who provided  a recipe for Lacy Corn Fritters, and Sandra Gutierrez, who gave the project her spin on Frijoles Borrachos. In all, 19 people provided 21 different recipes for the eCookbook, which can be purchased for $14.95. Proceeds from the book will go to the North Carolina Community Foundation, a statewide community foundation begun in 1988.