Neighbors feeding neighbors, one restaurant meal at a time.
Pay It Forward is a community meal program, starting in the greater Phoenix area and built to work anywhere in the US. Donors fund restaurant meals, and anyone who needs one gets it free.
Our mission
Make a restaurant meal easy to get for anyone who needs one, and easy to give for anyone who wants to help, while paying local restaurants for the food they cook. A lot of help comes with a line, a form, or a moment where you have to explain yourself to a stranger. We take that moment out.
Dignity first
No ID, no paperwork and no questions about need. Reserving online takes a free account only so we can keep it to one meal per person per day.
Honest with donors
You see exactly what one meal costs and where the money goes before you give, and every gift gets an emailed tax receipt.
Local money stays local
Meals are cooked by neighborhood restaurants, and they are paid for every meal they serve. Giving supports small businesses too.
How each group takes part
Every meal passes through a few hands. Here is what each group does and how to get started.
Neighbors
Anyone who needs a meal reserves one for free, online with a free account or on a counter tablet at restaurants that have one, and picks it up at the counter. One meal per person per day.
Get a mealDonors
Give once or monthly by card. Each gift funds whole meals in a shared community meal pool, and gifts are tax-deductible.
Donate mealsRestaurant partners
Local restaurants serve funded meals to neighbors at the counter and cook meal pickup orders for community partners. They are paid for every meal they serve.
For restaurantsCommunity partners
Shelters, outreach teams, food banks and churches order meals in bulk from restaurant partners and hand them out to people who can't get to a restaurant.
For community partnersOur team
We review every partner application, then walk each new partner through setup: a partner agreement, payout setup for restaurants, and a short training before going live (restaurant staff walk through Today's meals and meal codes). We check in after the first month, when we confirm a restaurant's first real meal, keep the help guides current, and pay restaurant partners each week.
Contact the teamLive meal counts
Right now
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Funded and available
Funded meals no one has reserved yet.
So far
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Meals funded online
Meals donors have funded through this site.
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Meals served
Meals neighbors received at restaurant partners and through community partners.
Live counts load when you visit.
How it started
Pay It Forward began as a pay-it-forward board on the wall at Beanchain Coffee in Mesa, Arizona. Somebody paid for a meal in advance, a card went up on the board, and whoever needed a meal took the card down and ate. No form, no line, nobody asking what had gone wrong.
The board worked, but only if you were standing in front of it, in one shop, and nobody could say for sure how many meals were eaten. This site takes the same idea to many restaurants, starting across the Phoenix metro, adds community partners who carry meals to people who can't get to a restaurant, and keeps a record of every meal.
Where we work
We're starting in the greater Phoenix area, where the idea began in Mesa: Phoenix, Mesa, Tempe and Chandler. Our first restaurant partners are joining there, and our free help guides cover those four cities.
Pay It Forward isn't limited to Arizona. It is built to work anywhere in the US, and restaurants and community partners in other places can apply. Know a restaurant that should take part? Tell us about it, or see the participating restaurants.
The nonprofit behind it
Pay It Forward is a program of the Foundation for Innovation in Society, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Phoenix (EIN 33-2320329). Donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law, and every gift is receipted by email.
Get in touch
Questions, partnership ideas, printed materials or press: our contact form goes straight to the team, or you can email hello@pifboard.com. Many answers are already in the FAQ.