Positively Influencing The Community with Heart, (PITCH INC)

PITCH INC would use the prize funding to launch our city's first community fridge program. These funds would be used to purchase several refrigerators, building materials to house the refrigerators, and rent / purchase a moving vehicle that we could use to make pick-ups and deliveries to local restaurants or businesses that wanted to donate food. Funds would also go towards allocating 3x / week grocery store visits to ensure each community fridge has staples in stock. Any additional funds would go towards advertising / promotion. Ideally, we would be able to have a paid part time employee to handle the daily operations of the fridge program.

PITCH INC also works heavily with those facing housing insecurity and provides care packages of hygiene products and undergarments to homeless individuals and shelters. The prize funds would allow us to have a large inventory of products on hand for regular donations each month.

I started PITCH INC as a GoFundMe project. I volunteered at a homeless shelter with my church and met several of the individuals. One of them told us a story about someone who came to the shelter to utilize services of their foot clinic and this person had worn their same pairs of socks so long that the sock had begun to grow into their skin. This story has stuck with me and I initially wanted to raise money to purchase socks for those at the shelters. I received overwhelming support and it inspired me to begin a non-profit that focused on supplying items that are infrequently donated but critical: undergarments, tissue, and other hygiene products. PITCH INC's mantra is that everyone can PITCH IN to help someone else. It is our vision that we expand to other cities in our state and other states and provide opportunities for regular people to leave a positive impact on underserved persons and communities. We want to help those battling housing and food insecurity with their immediate needs and implement programs that anyone can give of their time, talents, or tithes (monies).

We are working to address food insecurity and food waste in our city, Columbia, South Carolina, which is the capital city. On any given day, there are over 65,000 residents (this is 15% of total population) who do not have access to fresh, healthy foods. Grocery stores have been closing in lower income areas creating food deserts for the residents. The second problem that our project will tackle is food waste. Currently, food is the number one item that is thrown away in the state. To us it makes no sense to have so much food thrown away when there are so many people in need of food. Not having access to fresh, healthy food options contributes to poor food choices and long term health issues.

PITCH INC will launch a community fridge program, "Bread and Butter", that will place refrigerators directly in the most impacted communities and also serve as an outlet for local businesses and restaurants to safely donate foods to instead of disposing of it. This will be a free resource for the people in food desert communities. This effort will also improve community relations and promote solidarity, not charity.

PITCH INC's idea of the community fridge program is new. This will be the first program of its kind in our city and will directly help those in need. We believe in alleviating hardships of homelessness, hunger, and poverty and often times there are daily needs that go unmet for persons battling these systemic issues. Our community fridge program will serve as different than current food donation programs because it will remove the stigma of "charity" or a "hand-out". By placing community fridges in critical need neighborhoods, residents have direct access to fresh and healthy foods and can come whenever vs set times that other food donation programs have. For residents that do not have transportation access, these fridges will remove that barrier and they can access everything. PITCH INC wants to improve community relations and provide opportunities for any of our residents to have a positive impact on someone else.

We have already launched a fundraising campaign so that we can raise awareness of food insecurity issues and have monies to make purchases of refrigerators. We continue to regularly give out care packages that include high need, but infrequently donated items such as socks, underwear, umbrellas, and other hygiene products. The people we serve really like that we are able to provide these items and it has an immediate impact on their day to day activities and survival. Having access to tissue, feminine products, and laundry products are things we may take for granted, but for someone who does not have a home, these are critical items that can make such a difference.