You all know (or probably do, if you have been reading for a while) that I have a passion for food, and for supporting organizations that help to feed the hungry. I have done a few things over the years to promote awareness about hunger in this country, given some speeches at school, written about it on my blog, and just generally tried to raise awareness.
Katie Levans of Sweet Tater Blog (and former Bachelor contestant!) is one of my favorite bloggers. She is at Charlotte Small Business Start Up this weekend trying to get her amazingly brilliant (and oh so simple) start up idea off the ground.
Katie's idea is called Plate Share.
The jist of Plate Share is simple and powerful. It is basically a "round-up" concept. When you go out to dinner and your bill is $37.65 for dinner you use your Plate Share app on your smart phone to round-up the total to $38. The difference gets donated to Feeding America (one of my favorite food for the hunger charities which I have featured on the blog before). Done.
You can also do the same with your groceries. Grocery bill comes to $107.32? Use the app and round up to $108. Your change helps feed hungry families.
From Katie: (click the link to read Katie's full post, it is passionate and powerful)
It’s simple: Give change. Make change.
And what if every time you did this you snapped a picture of your plate and shared it with your friends on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram (#plateshare) and encouraged them to do the same? And they did the same and told their friends? Who then did the same and told their friends?
If we all work together, a little bit goes a long way.
Consider this:
- $1 contributes 7 pounds of food to Feeding America (formerly Second Harvest)
- If my 3,000 Twitter followers all joined Plate Share and donated an average $12/mo x 12 months = $432,000
- $432K is the equivalent of 3 million pounds of food
- The average person consumes 2,500 pounds of food annually
- Together, we could feed 1,200 people for one year
Here is how YOU can help Katie make her dream come true!
How You Can Help
If you believe in the Plate Share concept and want to see it come to life, here’s what you can do to draw attention:
Twitter
- Follow @plateshare on Twitter
- When you dine out, take a picture of your plate and tweet: “Hey @startupwkndCLT, this plate could help #endhunger. Support @sweettaterblog & the @plateshare project so I can donate $x.xx!” [Fill in the x's with the amount of change it would take to round your bill to the nearest dollar.]
- When you buy groceries, take a picture of your receipt and tweet: “Hey @startupwkndCLT, my groceries could help #endhunger. Support @sweettaterblog & the @plateshare project so I can donate $x.xx!” [Fill in the x's with the amount of change it would take to round your bill to the nearest dollar.]
- Tweet: “I believe in the @plateshare project. Support @sweettaterblog at @startupwkndCLT to help #endhunger”
- Tweet: “Give change, make change. Support @sweettaterblog and the @plateshare project at @startupwkndCLT to help #endhunger”
- Share the “Give Change, Make Change” photo below
Instagram
- When you dine out, take a picture of your plate and add the caption: “Hey #startupwkndCLT, this plate could help #endhunger. Support @sweettaterblog & the @plateshare project so I can donate $x.xx! #plateshare” [Fill in the x's with the amount of change it would take to round your bill to the nearest dollar.]
- Share the “Give Change, Make Change” photo below
Facebook
- Like Plate Share on Facebook HERE
- Share a link to this post and/or www.plateshare.org
- Share your #plateshare Instagrams and TwitPics to your timeline
- Post the “Give Change, Make Change” picture below to your timeline
Bloggers
- Link to this post from your blog and encourage others to do the same
- Tweet the living hell out of all of this
- Post this to your blog’s Facebook page
- Follow @plateshare on Twitter
Important Info
- Website: www.plateshare.org
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/plateshare
- Twitter: @plateshare, @sweettaterblog (Katie Levans, Founder),@startupwkndCLT (where I’m pitching this weekend)
- Hashtags: #plateshare, #endhunger, #CLT, #CLTfood
- Instagram: sweettaterblog (no plateshare instagram yet…)
- 10-second summary: Plate share is a social food photo-sharing smart phone application that empowers each and every one of us to make charitable giving second nature by rounding your restaurant bill to the nearest dollar and donating the change to feed the hungry.
THANK YOU
So, when you see me tweeting or Facebooking with the hash tag #plateshare you will know what it is all about. If you have a spot in your heart for making sure people get enough food to eat and are a someone who loves to tweet and Facebook, I encourage you to check out Plate Share for yourself.
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