TORONTO, Canada - In this Canadian city, the biggest in Canada, there's such thing as Rice Town and it's not all about gustatory offerings. It's also a delight of another kind, one that appeals to one's entertainment and cultural needs.

Rice Town is www.rice-cafe.com, where it has been almost quiet lately save for a couple of announcements that come in banner promotions of concerts. The online site "aims to be the voice for the Asian-North American arts community by providing the artists with the opportunity to showcase their work".

However, Rice-Cafe prime mover Toni Lam, a.k.a. DJ Rice, who is rather busy with her professional growth course, is gearing up for something refreshing in July. No details yet but, for sure, she will find time for Rice-Cafe as she always did in the last three years, her dedication earning her a nomination at Flare Magazine as "Volunteer of the Year," in 2006. Flare is a popular fashion magazine published in Toronto.

What is Rice-Cafe? It's an online portal which shows an amazing directory of Asian-North American artists. Lam confirmed that 70 percent of these artists are Filipinos. The artists come from different genre: music, literary, visual and performing arts. Though some pages have been "under construction" for sometime now, one can browse through the artists directory and read about their bio, that includes homepages, contact info, and of course, their dreams and accomplishments.

Lam, a native of Quezon City, migrated here in 1981 with her family. Her fondest memory of the Philippines were summer vacations at her grandmother's province in Ilocos Norte. She said she prefered the province more than the city. She was a student of the Stella Maris College until she migrated to Toronto. She was only 16 when she arrived here so she attended grade school and technical/college courses here as well. She remembers weekends being spent in BF Homes, Paranaque where her father's side of the family resides. She and her family now live at the northeast end of Scarborough.

Lam, a native of Quezon City, migrated here in 1981 with her family. Her fondest memory of the Philippines were summer vacations at her grandmother's province in Ilocos Norte. She said she prefered the province more than the city. She is an alumna of the Stella Maris College until she moved to Toronto.

Volunteerism makes Rice-Cafe laudable. Like Lam, everyone involved in it, which she calls the "rice town crew" are all volunteers. "Its the drive and the passion to help others, particularly Asian-North American artists who are more often discriminated upon, and have become sort of "underdogs," under this arena. The website serves as a platform for these artists to showcase their works and promote themselves," she said.

We also have connections with recording studios and we are more than willing to help artists in this end too, Lam added.

"It is non-profit. I don't get a single penny from this and neither does any of the crew. This is all volunteer work, and whatever we earn from shows or concerts we organize go back to website development and maintaining it," she further said.

Lam also said that Rice-Cafe had been involved in shows raising funds to help victims of tragedies like the Leyte mudslide victims in the Philippines and those affected by hurricane Katrina in the US. They have also organized shows in partnership with Canadian charity organizations and the Red Cross.

Since 2004, Lam said, Rice-Cafe has about 50 performances to its credit.

Rice-Cafe is an off-shoot of an e-magazine, www.ricebitz.com, which had the same concept. The main difference, Lam said, is that rice-cafe thrived because it had the same format as the Rice Cafe program in Radyo Pinoy then. In essence, it carried the image of the radio program online.

Aside from the obvious that Lam's heart goes out to the Filipino artist, Rice Cafe was also an avenue for her to build the spirit of volunteerism in her two daughters. Back in 2003, she said, she saw how her daughters were hooked up on the internet. So she thought, why not? This is something that the three of us could find meaningful and fulfilling," she added.

True enough that is what happened. She got her two daughters involved, and now Krista, 19, and Stefanie, 16, fully understand and appreciate what it means to give back to the community.