Kate Krader (@kkrader on Twitter) is Food & Wine's restaurant editor. When she tells us where to find our culinary heart's desire, we listen up.

Wow. It’s just astonishing and heartwarming and every positive adjective I can think of to see how hard people everywhere are working to help victims of Superstorm Sandy. There’s still so much that needs to be done, such a great need for items like batteries, baby supplies, tools - the list goes on.
 
Keep your eyes open for more ways to help, from eating out at places that donate to support Sandy victims to drop-offs for coats and supplies now that it’s starting to snow here in the Northeast. But let’s take one minute for a by-the-numbers look at several great efforts by people in the food industry to help others who still badly need it. 
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Kate Krader (@kkrader on Twitter) is Food & Wine's restaurant editor. When she tells us where to find our culinary heart's desire, we listen up.

No matter how much Superstorm Sandy footage you’ve seen - overwhelming amounts, no doubt - when you see it firsthand, it's worse. It’s too bad to be true.

At a time like this, it's awe-inspiring to see restaurants, both local and across the country, step up to help. Here's a by-no-means-comprehensive list of some outstanding efforts by restaurants. Now do your part: go out and eat and drink! It will help Hurricane Sandy victims and the people who are working so hard on the recovery efforts.
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On a normal Tuesday, Summer Pendle takes orders of duck fat fries, bluefish rillettes and roasted chicken from guests at the dining room tables made from salvaged bowling alley lanes at Northern Spy Food Co. in New York City’s East Village.

On Tuesday, October 30, Pendle found herself nowhere near normal: stranded in California due to airport closures and out of work for the unforeseen future.

“It is hard being stranded in California and watching your city crumble,” she said.

That day after Superstorm Sandy hit the East Coast, an estimated 7.9 million businesses and households up and down the East Coast – including Northern Spy Food Co. – were left without power. As of November 6, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York said approximately 400,000 New Yorkers were similarly still without power.

As electricity returned this weekend and local businesses began to regain their footing, Sandy's impact had a serious ripple effect - especially for hourly wage earners in the restaurant industry, like Pendle, who lost up to an entire week of pay.
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Chef, author and Emmy-winning television personality Anthony Bourdain is now a CNN contributor. He will travel around the globe to places such as Myanmar, Israel and the Congo as host of a new CNN show premiering this April. Follow him on Twitter @bourdain.

When you’re a small, independently owned and operated restaurant in New York City, the perishable inventory you just had to throw out of your warm refrigerators as a result of Superstorm Sandy may have been valued at, say, $2000 (to pick a completely arbitrary and optimistic number). And that’s what, in a perfect world, you might presumably, hopefully, eventually get back from the insurance company. If you’re lucky.

But the real value of that food was at least three times that amount from the second it entered the door. That’s the number you were counting on generating once that food was prepared and served. More likely, that’s the amount you needed to generate to cover the expenses of operating your restaurant.
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Stacy Cowley is CNNMoney's tech editor. She's in a complicated relationship with her CSA and explores the odd vegetables that show up in her haul in CSI: CSA. Previously, she fended off a stampeding herd of zucchini.

The vegetables I've been writing about this season - the invasive purslane weed, inscrutable kohlrabi and endless bushes of leafy greens - all came from Added Value, an urban farm located on the edge of Brooklyn's Red Hook waterfront neighborhood.

By Monday night, the farm was buried under almost three feet of water. Sandy's storm surge sent a flood of river water, mud and industrial sludge cascading through Red Hook, drowning hundreds of homes and local businesses. The farm lost its fall crops, some of its physical structures, and an estimated $10,000 to $40,000 in equipment.
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The worst of Superstorm Sandy's wrath may have passed, but in towns where the power has gone out, it may leave an unpleasant reminder for days or weeks to come. No matter how diligently you've been about discarding spoiled food and cleaning up after, foul odors can linger.

The Food Safety and Inspection Service offers these tips for ridding refrigerators and freezers of rank smells from flood waters and rotten food:
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The worst of Superstorm Sandy may be over, but the cleanup is just beginning. CNN's Impact Your World has a list of resources and ways to get help where it's needed most.

Read - How to help after the superstorm

Previously - Keep your food safe in and after an emergency and Box lunch: Hurricane Sandy food safety resources

Ever heard the line, “Water, water, everywhere and not a drop to drink?" Never is that more true than during a hurricane.

Superstorm Sandy came ashore Monday night, flooding parts of the East Coast. After a natural disaster, your water may not be safe for use, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This includes any water used for drinking, cooking, food preparation and/or personal hygiene.

Residents in Sandy’s path should be on the lookout for boil water advisories from their local and state departments of health, as well as from utility companies. These signify that your water may be contaminated.

Still, even if no notice has been issued, consumers should never assume that water in a flood-affected area is safe to drink, the Rhode Island Department of Health says.

Read the full story on CNN Health: Post-Sandy water safety tips

Safety and sufficient rations should be your primary concern in a hurricane, flood or tornado but that doesn't mean you can't also eat well. Sink your teeth into the top food storage and preparedness links from around the globe.

• "Prepare. Plan. Stay Informed." The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) encourages people in the path of Sandy to build an emergency food supply kit.

• The USDA says to plan ahead to minimize the risk of foodborne illness.

• Fooducate lists the top 10 foods that keep well in a natural disaster - and are healthy too.

• When the power goes out, know when to save and when to throw out the food in your refrigerator with this handy chart by FoodSafety.gov.

• Should the water supply become compromised, ensure the water you're drinking is safe with these water treatment methods suggested by the CDC.

Peter Biro is a writer and photographer for the International Rescue Committee. He reports on refugee and humanitarian issues in Southeast/Central Asia and Africa.

Tens of thousands of people have fled northern Mali as Islamist militants tighten their grip over the vast desert region. Those who remain face an increasingly desperate humanitarian situation with little access to food, clean water and medicine. The International Rescue Committee and international relief organizations, meanwhile, are struggling to deliver vital aid to suffering Malian civilians.

Over 450,000 people have fled the north since the Islamist takeover and another half-million people inside the country are in need of immediate assistance according to the United Nations and international aid organizations.

“The situation in the north of the country is becoming more and more alarming,” said Tasha Gill, who directs the IRC’s aid programs in Mali. “Basic services like health centers, water points and schools have stopped functioning. And although food can be found at the market now, many simply cannot afford to buy it. A perfect storm is brewing and thousands need humanitarian assistance.”
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