14-year-old Anish Kaza in Boca Raton, Florida had a great idea according to CBS 12
When he was 11 he volunteered with his mom at a shelter. That kind of opened my eyes to the harsh reality of food insecurity and how many people face it. What especially struck me was kids coming in with their families."
His idea was that pizza is a rather inexpensive meal to produce but it's a pretty healthy option all things considered. Perhaps some local pizza shops would be willing to donate some pizzas to at risk families. Patricia Lopez, the owner of Roboli Ristorante Italiano in Boca Raton says “When this young man came in with his mother, he was very, very shy, but he sat on table 11, I will never forget that, and he spoke from his heart. He wanted to help others.”
Once he started finding owners like Patricia he had to find a way to connect at risk families with the donors. That ended up requiring Anish to create an app. Because he had no money he had to teach himself how to build an app watching YouTube videos. That actually took a couple of years. Now he has the app, a name for his charity “Pizza for a Purpose”, and 11 area pizza restaurants who are participating.
He anticipates there will be almost 1000 slices donated, per restaurant, this year. Anish is also looking to partner with other restaurants and expand eventually to grocery stores.
Photo: Marvin Samuel Tolentino Pineda / iStock Editorial / Getty Images