Please Thank the Food Heroes
Who Provided Free Food at the Polls
Earlier this month, Feed the Polls, Pizza to the Polls,
Chefs for The Polls, and Vote.Org went out of their way to provide free
pizzas, snacks, meals and water for hundreds of thousands of people at polling
locations nationwide.
All of these Food Heroes and everyone involved in this
effort deserve a big thank you for all their hard work. #ThankAFoodHero
This was a massive undertaking which required many hours of
planning and coordination by the founders and others in charge. It also required lots of hard work behind the
scenes to prepare, pack, and deliver the free food. This would have not been
possible without the collective efforts of many people who freely and
unselfishly gave time, energy and resources to make it all happen.
In addition to benefitting hungry voters, poll workers, and
other residents in the community, the nationwide free food initiatives also benefited
the local businesses who partnered with the four organizations involved.
Please take few minutes of your time to extend a huge, heartfelt thanks to the founders, coordinators, sponsors, partners,
local businesses, community volunteers, and all the other food heroes who participated,
either on the frontlines or behind the scenes. #ThankAFoodHero
Below is a brief overview of the four organizations involved
and who provided what.
You can give them a shout out, or a word of thanks here or
on the Thank a Food Hero
Facebook page
Feed the Polls
Founded this year by Zagat CEO and Infatuation co-founder Chris Stang, Feed the Polls was a relative newcomer in the arena of providing free food at the polls. Despite that, Feed the Polls fed hungry voters at 54 polling locations in 6 cities coast to coast (Philadelphia, Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix, Miami, and Denver).
Stang said he got the idea for Feed the Polls after hearing a comment Michelle
Obama made in her speech at the Democratic National Convention., Stang teamed
up with Nasser Jaber and Daniel Durado, founders of The Migrant Kitchen, a New
York City based not-for-profit food relief kitchen employing undocumented
immigrants. And in late September, Feed the Polls was born.
In a radical
departure from the norm, Feed the
Polls focused on providing voters with healthy, nutritious, gourmet-quality food
based on local preferences – in other words, giving local people the type of
food they like to eat. In partnership with local food truck operators,
restaurants, and catering organizations, Feed the Polls served Puerto Rican,
Native American, Thai, Vietnamese, Mexican, Cuban, Yemeni, and other
not-so-traditional food, depending on the neighborhood. Durado, referred to it as “food with respect.”
Local food distribution was implemented with the help of community volunteers. Lady
Gaga even gave Feed the Polls a shout out on her personal Instagram account.
Pizza to the Polls
Pizza to the Polls, the oldest of the free food initiatives, got its start in 2016 when 3 co-workers from Oregon (Scott Duncombe, Katie Harlow and Noah Manger) came together with the simple mission of sending snacks to crowded polling locations.
This year, working with Slice to find pizza places close to
each polling location, they delivered 66, 089 pizzas to 3267 polling places in 48 states, from
local pizzerias as well as from larger chains.
This year Pizza to the Polls also deployed 262 food trucks
to 29 cities through their partnership with Uber Eats to provide individually
wrapped snacks from popular local chains such as Shake Shack, Milk Bar, Hattie
B’s Hot Chicken, Daybreaker, Hattie B’s Hot Chicken, JUST Goods, Inc., Pipcorn,
Sticky's Finger Joint, The Salty Donut, Voodoo Doughnut and others.
The program received support from celebrities like Lady
Gaga, Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato, and Tracee Ellis Ross. Donations were used to
pay food truck operators who parked outside the polls to offer free meals.
Program director Amirah Noaman stated that free food and
water from Pizza to the Polls was available for anyone - voters, children accompanying
their parents, poll volunteers and staff, residents of the neighborhood, even
passers-by.
Chefs for the Polls
On early voting days and Election Day, as well, food
trucks, caterers, restaurateurs, and volunteers working in conjunction with Chefs for the Polls served breakfast, lunch, and
dinner to voters, poll workers, and anyone else in the neighborhood.
Water and nutritious regional specialties such as tacos in
Milwaukee, barbecue in Atlanta, empanadas in Portland, and burritos in L.A were
available to all - no questions asked.
World Central Kitchen CEO Nate Mook said that by recruiting
local restaurants, caterers and food trucks and paying them per meal for all
the work, Chefs for the Polls was able to support local businesses that affected
by the coronavirus pandemic. In the New York City area, LoLo’s was one of 32 participating
New York City restaurants, chefs and food trucks in Chefs for fhe Polls,
Vote.org
Though not as widely publicized as the three initiatives
above, Vote.org did attract the attention of TMZ.com which was impressed that they
were giving away between 750 and 1,050 free meals each day to voters and
locals.
Food trucks beating free chicken or veggie tacos and
bottled water were deployed by Vote.org to 13 cities in half a dozen states (Georgia, Indiana,
Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.)
And like the other “free food” programs, it wasn’t just
voters who were being fed. Kids,
friends, family, and passersby were all welcome to grab a bite.
#ThankAFoodHero
Please leave a brief thank you below for one or more of the food heroes
mentioned above.
And please share this
post with your friends so they can thank these food heroes too.
#ThankAFoodHero
