Awesome PEC funds ‘Food to Share’

Awesome PEC pitch party participants at Saturday’s event.

The Prince Edward County Awesome Foundation presented a $1,000 grant to support a food to share idea.

Awesome PEC’s Lenny Epstein with winner Glen Walis.

Glen Wallis was awarded the no-strings attached funding for his “Food to Share” project, in which he plans to use local produce and teams of volunteers to stock the freezers of local food banks with healthy meals.

“I wanted to have a project that would be simple for people to understand and participate in that would address the issue of food insecurity,” said Wallis. “To me the best solution is the simplest, use existing volunteer groups, in existing institutions and organizations and spread the word about how everyone can help.”

Wallis’ project was one of three short-listed to win the award, said Lenny Epstein, Awesome PEC Dean. The other two projects were Hri Neil’s “Dance Dance Evolution” and “The Write Stuff” by the students of Sonrise Christian Academy.

The three shortlisted project creators were invited to pitch their ideas at an Awesome PEC Pitch Party at Barley Days Brewery.

“After listening to the three compelling pitches, the Awesome Trustees, who’d each put in $100 toward the prize, sequestered themselves in another room to debate the merits of each project,” said Epstein. “While all were great projects worthy of support, only one could be funded.”

Epstein, announced the winner and handed Wallis an envelope with $1,000 cash to bring ‘Food to Share’ to life.

“I love cooking and I love the feeling I get from helping others so to receive funding from the Awesome Foundation is just terrific. I hope the project is a big success and can become an annual event,” said Wallis.

Awesome PEC plans to award four $1,000 grants per year. Previous recipients of the grant are Craig Morrison, whose project DISLOYAL was a two-day skateboard-making workshop for County teenagers, and Louise McFaul, who is expected to begin the installation of 200 whimsical Fairy Doors all over the County once the snow melts.

The Awesome Foundation for the Arts and Sciences is a worldwide network of people devoted to forwarding the interest of awesomeness. The idea started in 2009 in Boston, and now dozens of local chapters of the foundation distribute $1,000 grants to projects and their creators. The money is pooled together from the coffers of 10 or so self-organizing trustees and awarded with no strings attached.

The next deadline to apply for a grant from Awesome PEC is May 1, 2015. Grants can be used for any type of project that benefits the County. Projects should be able to be completely accomplished for the $1,000 awarded.