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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Pizza to the Polls

Pizza to the Polls to Bring Snacks to Civic-Minded Voters

Well, it’s finally here. Election day. Given the record turnouts that have happened already, chance are good there are going to be looooooooong lines at ballot boxes across the country today.

To help ease the pain (both figurative and literal) of standing in line for that long, Pizza to the Polls (PttP) is back to feed the masses. You might remember PttP from the 2018 mid-terms, when it crowdfunded pizza deliveries to poll locations with long waits.

This year, PttP has partnered with Uber Eats to deploy 262 food trucks to polling places in 25 cities. The trucks are carrying snacks to hand out from Milk Bar, Voodoo Dougnuts, Wetzel’s Pretzels, Shake Shack and more.

According to the PttP fact sheet, trucks will be available in Phoenix, AZ; Los Angeles, CA; Washington, DC; Miami, FL; Tampa, FL; Orlando, FL; Gainesville, FL; Atlanta, GA; Louisville, KY; Detroit, MI; Ann Arbor, MI; Minneapolis, MN; Charlotte, NC; Raleigh, NC; Greensboro, NC; Las Vegas, NV; Reno, NV; New York, NY; Philadelphia, PA; Pittsburgh, PA; Charleston, SC; Nashville, TN; Houston, TX; Austin, TX; and Milwaukee, WI.

Voters can report long lines in one of these cities by either tweeting @pizzatothepolls or filling out the form at polls.pizza. Once verified, a truck will be dispatched to that location where free snacks will be handed out (taking the necessary COVID-related precautions). Those at home can donate money to help out PttP.

The very fact that there are super long lines to vote is both inspiring and depressing. (It should be easier!) PttP can at least make that time a little more tasty.

Pizza to the Polls Crowdfunds Food for Those in Long Voting Lines

I’m glued to my social media feeds today as America goes to vote. Among all the pics of people adorned with “I voted” stickers, there were also a bunch of people I follow talking about Pizza to the Polls, a rather ingenious concept that brings together two of our favorite topics at The Spoon: food and technology.

If you haven’t heard about it, Pizza to the Polls crowdfunds pizza delivery for people stuck in very long lines waiting to vote. To send a pie, users visit https://polls.pizza/ and submit a social media link showing a packed polling place, as well as that polling place’s street address. Once the crowd is confirmed, Pizza to the Polls sends in the pies.

And quite possibly the best part? Anyone can donate to make someone else’s time voting a little bit easier/tastier. At the time of this story, Pizza to the Polls has raised more than $218,000 for the 2018 election and sent 5,329 pizzas to 308 polling places in 41 states. For comparison, during the 2016 election Pizza to the Polls raised $43,307 and delivered 2,368 pizzas to 128 polling places across 24 states.

Pizza to the Polls uses Slice to coordinate delivery and says it tries to use local pizza companies where it can. Any money leftover (sorry), will be saved for future elections and/or marches.

Look, though we may be divided as a country, and this is an emotionally fraught, heavy election, pizza is probably the one thing that can bring us all together.