The power of food is at the core of our organization
While food is a facet of Southern hospitality and culture, it is also one of the best ways to find common ground with others in our community. At the core of every good southern story is the family table, where folks gather round to eat, drink, and converse. This communal experience of eating together is welcoming, warm and accessible - qualities that we wanted to extend to the election experience, which is often intimidating and obscure, laden with unknowns. We saw an opportunity to reach people through the power of food and hospitality. A runoff historically suffers from low voter turnout because people are (1) unaware of the election; and/or (2) do not understand why the election matters to their day-to-day life. Suited with relevant information and delicious food, we believe that we can increase voter turnout in the runoff election. Learn more about our food-centric campaigns below.
Food Bank Partnerships
We will continue to provide voter education to food bank participants by including educational materials in food bank boxes to empower recipients with the information needed to vote and the motivation for why they should vote.
Our mail-in voter kits include informational materials as well as pre-paid postage for voters to both understand and participate in the vote by mail option that is available to all Georgians during the COVID-19 crisis. Each kit costs ~$1.00, so every dollar you donate will help produce a mail-in voter kit!
Restaurant Partnerships
We successfully partnered with 50+ local restaurants to provide food to voters on General Election Day (November 3, 2020). We plan to utilize these partnerships leading up to January 5th by hosting restaurant pop-ups in a COVID-friendly manner with the aim of educating voters about the runoff election and motivating them to engage with the electoral process.
Neighborhood Partnerships
Senior Center Events
In partnership with senior centers throughout the city, we equip senior communities with the resources that may need to vote, including help navigating the absentee ballot request process and providing rides to the elderly to absentee ballot drop-boxes. We’ll also be offering free snacks and beverages at our events to make voter education that much more delicious.
Engaging in Food Deserts
There are a number of areas throughout Atlanta that are considered “food deserts.” Having successfully partnered with 50+ local restaurants to provide food to voters on Election Day, we will leverage these partnerships for this runoff election by bringing restaurant pop ups into these under-resourced areas. At the pop up, we will educate voters on the practical effects of the senate election (healthcare, covid relief, criminal justice reform, etc) to motivate and encourage them to engage with the runoff.
Neighborhood Associations
We will provide door-hanging/knocking educational materials to neighborhood associations throughout the election season. We have found that neighbors speaking to neighbors increases the chances that (1) the materials are actually read and (2) the materials are seen as a trusted resource.
MARTA Market Booths
These were incredibly important and had an immensely high impact during the general election season. We will continue our partnership with MARTA’s Fresh Markets to provide voter education to historically under-resourced communities. In addition, our daily presence at these markets week after week facilitated relationships with MARTA riders to lower communication barriers normally present in a traditional pop up. Patrons see us day after day, week after week, so they ask us questions that they normally would not feel comfortable asking or follow up with additional inquiries since they know where to find us on their commutes.
Line-warming
This term refers to the act of feeding, hydrating, and providing support to voters waiting in line to vote. This is our flagship campaign and will continue on high-turnout early voting days and on January 5th.
We’ll be opening sign-ups to join our Snack Brigade and line-warming teams at the beginning of December so make sure to sign-up for our newsletter to be the first to know!
November Election Recap
On General Election Day (November 3rd), the Georgia 55 Project organized a massive line-warming effort on the ground to feed, hydrate, support and excite voters waiting in line at over 250 polling places across South Fulton and DeKalb counties. With the help of 300+ volunteers, partnerships with 50+ local restaurants in Atlanta as well as a small team of sponsors, we were able to make Election Day a fun, joyous and delicious celebration of our democracy. Catch a glimpse of what our work on the ground on November 3rd looked like and meet our co-founders, Adelaide, Abbie, Katie, and Melody. Thanks to On the Grid Creative for producing and creating this video!