The Pittsburgh Tote Bag Project grew out of the observations of a food pantry distribution by founder and social worker, Sue Kerr. While waiting for her own clients to make their way through the pantry line, she noticed that the disposable bags were often too flimsy or small for the food being distributed and had a "flash of insight" that tote bags would be as helpful at a food pantry as they were at the traditional grocery store. She tweeted that thought, received a response from the Social Media Manager at The Pittsburgh Foundation. A few days later, his donation of bags arrived in the mail and the tote bag drive was born.

 

The project kicked off full-time on April 22, 2011. In partnership with Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, the project focused on collecting tote bags to support the 120,000 people served each month by the network of over 300 food pantries in an 11 county region. Staffed entirely by volunteers, the organizers collaborated with a range of environmental and hunger relief organizations to established 16 permanent drop-off spots throughout the Greater Pittsburgh region.  They have also coordinated dozens of tote bag drives and cultivated relationships with meeting professionals to tap into excess event promotional materials.

 

In seven months, the project has collected over 8,900 bags. All bags suitable for food transport are passed along to the Food Bank for distribution to the food pantries in their network. Bags in good condition, but not suitable for food (purses, very small bags, messenger bags, etc) are redirected to other human service agencies such as a residential program for adolescent females. Bags that have outlived their purpose are donated to the Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse to be repurposed as art and crafting materials.  

 

In December, the project has begun discussion with the Westmoreland County Food Bank about expanding the project to serve their pantries. Westmoreland is the only Southwestern PA county not served directly by the Pgh Food Bank - the positive relationship between the two organizations makes expansion viable at this time. We are also working closely with the Pgh Food Bank to develop large scale tote/food drive collections, as well as working with the Girl Scouts of Western Pennsylvania as part of their 2012 focus on green initiatives.  

 

The Tote Bag Project has also enjoyed tremendous social media support. The organizing team has worked doggedly to establish a solid social media presence, using Facebook, Twitter and Google+ as well as incorporating YouTube and Scoop.It curation tools. We recently transitioned to a full-blown website using Word Press and have been active in the "Just Give Me 10" initiative to recognize and acknowledge social media superhero efforts. Other initiatives have included a tote bag drive at the local Podcamp Pittsburgh in September as well as the first ever "#blogmob" event with local foodie blogger and the Food Bank.  

 

Next steps include securing funding to develop a web based database to track inventory and other critical information for a large scale project. We will also devote more resources to the outlying counties to increase the number of tote drives organized in those regions. Finally, we will be taking steps toward funding at least a PT position to coordinate the project.  

 

To join a tote drive or start one on your own, please visit http://tote4pgh.com/.