Feeling good, doing good

For just a few hours a week, Nordy’s Place buzzes with the busiest of its lunch traffic…. For just a few hours a week, Nordy’s Place buzzes with the busiest of its lunch traffic. Members of the makeshift deli jot down customer orders for grilled cheese on sticky notes and pass them to line workers. After tearing the circular slices of cheese to fit the bread and adding an array of extra ingredients from pizza sauce to pesto, mushrooms and spinach, the sandwiches are ready for grilling.

Last Thursday’s shift was busy as usual, and sandwich grillers gently pushed down grill covers to speed up cooking. They pay careful attention not to burn anyone’s lunch.

FeelGood World, a nonprofit group that raises money to fight world hunger, has a student-run chapter at Pitt that sells grilled cheese at Nordy’s Place in the Union on Thursday afternoons during the school year. Since the group opened shop in the spring of 2008, the chapter — one of 24 across the country — has raised about $28,000 for the Hunger Project, an organization combating world hunger.

Last Thursdays, about 130 hungry Pitt students came looking for lunch. Nick Collins, the group’s business manager, woke up at 8 a.m. last Thursday and drove to Stamoolis Brothers Company in the Strip District to pick up 12 pounds of presliced cheddar and mozzarella cheese. The group has turned to Stamoolis for cheese for the past year.

By 10:30 a.m., he’s with the group members in the back of Nordy’s Place as they lay out ingredients and prepare their set of panini-style grills. Although the deli doesn’t technically open until 11 a.m., “if someone came out and wanted a sandwich [for breakfast], we’d probably make it for them,” Collins said.

Within fifteen minutes, the group has already sold its first few sandwiches. The “Grilled Granny Smith” is a popular breakfast item that has cheese, apples, cinnamon and sugar. Every week features a rotating special ingredient, but FeelGood sandwiches never include meat products. The group’s president, Alyssa Weisenesse, said that all of the group’s chapters are vegetarian.

She said that, in general, the cost of maintaining animals and transporting meat makes it less environmentally friendly than vegetarian options.

Last week’s ingredient was jalapenos. The spicy component served as a complement with the Mexican-themed “Feel Bueno” grilled cheese, which included cheese, salsa, beans, corn and tortilla chips right in the sandwich. Some of the sandwich ideas come from a contest the group holds that searches for the next great grilled cheese. A Pitt student submitted the “Feel Bueno” recipe last year, and it has become one of the most popular menu items.

“The rule is: keep cooking until they’re nice and melty, until they’re nice and crispy-brown,” said FeelGood member Evan Terwilliger.

At some point during the day ­— the shift goes until 3 p.m. — some of the roughly 10 members working the deli will take a lunch break. But the group members always pay for their own grilled cheese to support the cause.

All sandwiches cost $3, but it’s not uncommon for customers to pay more or to refuse change, preferring that all their money goes toward ending hunger, the group’s president, Alyssa Weisensee, said. The deli will take $1 or $100 for a sandwich, although it aims to raise at least $400 a week.

The funding for ingredients comes from Student Government Board and FeelGood World. The group has also received some donations of ingredients from local businesses.

Although they take pride in their sandwiches, Members often tell customers a bit about the organization’s goals while they’re paying and hand out paper slips with more details on the fight against world hunger.

“We definitiely try to ask [customers] with every purchase that they make, ‘Do you know where your money goes?’ ‘Do you know what the Hunger Project is?’ But I think that’s one of the cool parts of FeelGood that they can make an impact even without digging deep into it,” Weisensee said.

Pitt junior Benjamin Robinson said he’s a frequent customer of FeelGood. Although service isn’t always as quick as the neighboring Schenley Cafe, the FeelGood members are exceptionally friendly and he likes to support their effort, he said.

“World hunger is a very, very fine cause,” Robinson said. “If they made [the price] more expensive, I’d probably still support it.”

Carly Pelchen, a Pitt junior and regular FeelGood customer, has three simple reasons for grabbing lunch there.

“It’s better than all the other Pitt food, it goes to a good cause and I love grilled cheese,” she said.

The group’ss goal for this academic year is to raise $12,501. Last year it raised $9,000. FeelGood World lets every chapter set a goal as to how much it wants to raise.

Finding a good feeling

Kristin Walter, co-founder and executive director of FeelGood World, came across the Hunger Project’s website as an undergrad at the University of Texas and was inspired to raise money for the group.

“I was incredibly eager to make a difference, and I didn’t want to wait anymore. I didn’t want to wait until I graduated,” she said.

Walter’s then-boyfriend, now her husband, was a student at the University of Vermont and told Walter how fellow students raised money for Phish concerts by selling grilled cheese sandwiches. Walter liked the idea, and she raised $160 in her first week of selling grilled cheese. To keep raising more money, she turned her endeavor into a student organization at Texas.

Nearly a year later, in December of 2004, the group had raised about $10,000. Walter graduated that year, but didn’t want to stop her organization, so she and a friend decided to take it to the national level. The FeelGood title simply reflects the sentiment shared by members and supporters, Walter said.

While taking part in the Semester at Sea program, a group of former Pitt students met Walter’s brother and learned about FeelGood. Upon returning in 2008, they initiated the chapter at Pitt.

The money from FeelGood that goes to the Hunger Project aids a variety of communities in Latin America, Africa and South Asia. The organization works closely with communities to eliminate chronic hunger instead of just dropping off a shipment of food.

“Most communities, especially in Africa, are used to people coming in … and handing them something out,” Walter said. “So Hunger Project staff will arrive and [community members] will say ‘give me a handout give me a handout. Give me clothes or whatever.’ And [the staff] will say, ‘Look we’re not here to give you a handout. We’re here to partner with you to create a new future.’”

The Hunger Project works with communities on a variety of social issues, such as eliminating gender inequality or improving literacy rates. It could also help a community develop new irrigation systems or build community centers. It stresses that hunger as an issue is more complex than just having nutritional food available. It’s best combated through long-term community development rather than temporary fixes.

“One of our taglines is ‘partnership not charity,’ so this idea that ending hunger really isn’t about a handout, it’s about empowering the potential and the self-reliance in our human family,” Walter said.

As the lunch-hour rush settles, one girl orders a grilled cheese and fishes through her wallet to pay. After realizing she doesn’t have money, she asks if she can pay next week. “I wouldn’t screw over FeelGood,” she said. The group members tell her that’s no problem.

“It’s whatever makes you feel good,” Weisensee said.