by Daniel Buckley

Despite the three-day weekend, I’m seeing a lot of bags under my coworkers’ eyes. (Sorry guys, but you know it’s true! Besides, I’m calling myself out here too…) Everybody’s got Monday-morning sluggishness worse than usual, even though it’s actually Tuesday.

But today the reason for our office’s energy deficit is something to feel good about. It’s not the usual adjusting-to-work-shoes syndrome: it’s the Food Network NYC Wine & Food Festival, which benefited the Food Bank and our friends at Share Our Strength.

The Blue Moon Burger Bash, where I volunteered click here to view more of my photos from Burger Bash and the Grand Tasting

October 8-11, the Food Bank’s volunteers and staff gave their time to help make one of our city’s biggest culinary events possible. And we can all take satisfaction in the fact that, once everything is all packed and the final numbers are crunched, the festival is likely to have been our biggest fundraising event of the year!

And that’s not to mention how much awareness the festival helped raise for hunger relief. With 14 different Food Network personalities, a slew of the city’s – correction: the country’s – best restaurants and more than 100 events over four days, the high profile of the NYC Wine & Food Festival has helped to bring the Food Bank’s message to millions of people.

So, while our office and our volunteers recover from the weekend, we can know that our efforts can help millions of people struggling with something much worse than a case of the Mondays.