A blog called The Penny Experiment is starting to get some buzz among frugal and personal finance writers.

The Penny Experiment is a project that features artists creating pieces that feature pennies in the artwork, and using the images and proceeds to raise awareness for the ultimate goal – $1 million in groceries donated to food banks. Here is the story.

How do the non-artists get involved? They are asked to use their coupons to buy free and very cheap groceries that go to their local food banks. Here’s some of the reports so far.

One participating blogger pointed out that in her community, the food banks prefer bulk food donations. So she has given her “finds” directly to a needy family that she knows.

But if you are one of my local readers in the Monroe, Mich., area, there are a lot of local neighborhood and church food closets that can and do distribute  regular grocery-size items to families. Furthermore, the southeast Michigan food pantries have been seeing higher demand, especially from families who were taking care of themselves until the recession hit.