Giving Tuesday: A National Volunteering Event

Giving Tuesday is a national event taking place on November 29 where people are encouraged to give to charities or volunteer. Andrew Fritz, Co-owner of the Gladly and Dionne Washington, Co-founder, Project Roots gave us an insight on the topic and their partnership this year’s Giving Tuesday.

“Giving Tuesday is a wonderful opportunity for the community to pick a local 501C3 to donate their funds to or even time,” said Washington.

Project Roots

Project Roots is a non-profit organization that was started by Bridget Pettis, a WNBA player, and Dionne Washington. It has created two community gardens in underserved areas. “In these times of inflation in the cost of everything in the grocery store we’re really trying to educate our community to grow their own food,” said Washington. “But for those that feel like they don’t have that green thumb, we like for them to come to our community garden and maybe pick that fresh produce straight from our garden.”

Ice Ball Initiative

The Gladly partners with two non-profits each year. This year, they have chosen Project Roots as one of their local non-profit partners. “Our team decided to donate to Project Roots,” said Fritz. “It was a collaborative effort by our team and they all voted for this specific non-profit.”

The Gladly and IGS Hospitality has an Ice Ball Initiative. Customers pay extra for a tableside-created ice ball and $1 of it goes to the charity. So far this year, they have raised above $1500. For Giving Tuesday, instead of giving $1 dollar to the non-profit they’ll be giving $5 for every ice ball sold.

“We talked to a lot of different farmers and seen a lot of local chefs who have very seasonal menus using local farms. It’s incredibly important supporting the local community means everything. If the last two or three years has taught me anything in the restaurant business is that community matters,” said Fritz.