Students FeelGood about grilled cheese

Make a grilled cheese sandwich and you’ll eat for a day, buy one from FeelGood and you could… Make a grilled cheese sandwich and you’ll eat for a day, buy one from FeelGood and you could help feed a village for life.

This is the premise and the promise behind Pitt FeelGood, the newest chapter of a nationwide nonprofit organization that sells gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches on college campuses in an effort to end world hunger by 2025.

Pitt’s chapter got the ball rolling Wednesday, selling gourmet grilled cheeses like the “Cheesus Loves Me,” “Prantl’s Pizza Sandwich” and “The Grilled Cheese of Learning” (a Pitt original) at the bar inside Nordy’s Place in the William Pitt Union from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

FeelGood’s chapter at Pitt was founded by students on the Semester at Sea voyage last spring.

After hearing one of the original co-founders, Jason Walters of the University of Texas, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the African Nobel Peace Prize winner, speak highly of FeelGood’s mission, the students decided they would establish a chapter of their own back at Pitt.

“Desmond Tutu mentioned FeelGood and the fact that he put so much weight on it and thought it was such a great thing really made us want to start it at Pitt. It’s basically our way of continuing what we learned and saw during Semester at Sea,” said Austen Terwilliger, Pitt’s FeelGood spokesman.

The money earned by Pitt and the 16 other national chapters of FeelGood supports The Hunger Project, a partnership that seeks to solve the problem of world hunger through the empowerment of indigenous people, and especially women, in poverty-stricken areas.

“We believe world hunger can be ended in our lifetime and that it is our generation’s responsibility – through partnership, not charity – to end it,” FeelGood.org says.

Rather than simply using the funds to purchase food to send to such regions, the Hunger Project aims for a more sustainable solution.

“It teaches local people sustainable farming techniques, but the main goal is to teach women to become socially empowered,” said Robyn Tedder, vice president of Pitt’s chapter of FeelGood.

The Hunger Project uses “animators” – people indigenous to each area the project serves – to hold town-meeting-like forums to discuss issues and problems and ways to amend them, she said.

Problems could include anything from a lack of water pumps supplying fresh water to the village to a need for better irrigation systems for crops. Through the work and donations of groups like FeelGood, the Hunger Project is in a position to supply such resources.

“The way our nonprofit is set up, we don’t officially sell anything,” Terwilliger said.

“We give away grilled cheeses for a suggested donation of $3. But of course people can give whatever they want. We certainly aren’t going to stop anyone who wants to pay $10 for a sandwich. Anything is fine because it all goes to the Hunger Project,” Terwilliger said.

In keeping with the FeelGood nation al model as developed by the original chapter, Pitt’s chapter is attempting to use donated ingredients from local markets and businesses so that all money earned at the grilled cheese sale can be profit to be given to the Hunger Project.

“Our bread for today was donated by Prantl’s bakery,” said Jen Ryder, president of FeelGood.

“They’ve been really generous and gave us 14 or 15 loaves. We don’t have any vegetable or cheese donations yet, but we’re working with Whole Foods, Giant Eagle and the farmers’ markets in the Strip District and Oakland to see if we can get those things from them,” Ryder said.

Dubbing their sandwiches “gourmet” means FeelGood uses a little more than just two pieces of white bread and American cheese.

Their menu includes “add-ons” like onions, tomatoes, spinach, pesto, mushrooms, Italian seasonings and pasta sauce for those who want to build their own sandwiches.

“It’s whatever we can come up with,” Terwilliger said. “We’re kind of like the Subway of grilled cheese sandwiches.”

In order to sell the group’s trademark grilled cheeses, FeelGood needed to earn the stamp of approval from the Student Organization Resource Center, Sodexho, the food service provider for Pitt’s campus dining, and the Allegheny Health Department.

“No campus group has ever sold food other than the occasional bake sale, but we worked closely with Dean [of Students Kathy] Humphrey and Jodi Ludovici of Sodexho to be able to do it,” Ryder said.

“We were very blessed, because in talking with people about it, we found they were very enthusiastic and willing to help us out,” Terwilliger said.

For their deli debut, FeelGood set a goal of 50 sandwiches and $150. By 1 p.m. yesterday, just two hours after their opening, they had already raised $130.

“This is a good sign. Hopefully this way we can get more and more people to come and will be able to sell more than once a week next year,” Ryder said.

But until then, if you’re looking for a mean sandwich with a big heart, the FeelGood deli will be open for business every Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Nordy’s Place.