How Pay It Forward works

Anyone who needs one. There is no ID, no paperwork and no questions about why. Neighbors in the community paid for the meals, so they are free to you.

Create a free account with your email address, then choose a restaurant partner and reserve a meal. You get a meal code. Show it at the restaurant's counter within 2 hours to pick up your meal.

The free account is how we keep it to one meal per person per day, and how we email you your meal code. We never ask about your income, your housing or why you need a meal.

Some restaurant partners have a Pay It Forward tablet at the counter, where you can reserve a meal without an account. A meal reserved on a counter tablet is for right then, so show your meal code to staff right away. Community partners, like shelters and outreach teams, also hand out meals, and some can reserve a meal for you.

One meal per person per day, so there are enough to go around.

A meal reserved online is held for 2 hours. If it isn't picked up by then, the reservation ends and the meal goes back into the pool for someone else.

Restaurant partners are still joining. Our free help guides list free meals, shelters, medical care and crisis lines in Phoenix, Mesa, Tempe and Chandler. Anywhere in Arizona, you can dial 211 for help finding food and shelter.

Choose how many meals to fund and pay by card through Stripe's secure checkout. Your gift goes into a shared community meal pool. When a neighbor picks up a meal, the restaurant partner that served it is paid from the pool. You don't need an account to give once.

The donate page shows the exact price of one meal before you pay. Most of it is the meal itself. A small part covers card processing, and a small program fee keeps Pay It Forward running.

Yes. Pay It Forward is a program of the Foundation for Innovation in Society, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit (EIN 33-2320329). Donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law, and we email you a receipt.

Yes. Turn on monthly giving on the donate page. Monthly giving needs a free account so you can manage it: update your card or cancel from your account at any time. To change how many meals you give each month, cancel and start a new monthly gift.

Payments are handled by Stripe. Your card number goes straight to Stripe, and Pay It Forward never sees or stores it.

Send us a message through the contact form and choose donations as the topic. We will look into it and get back to you.

Start an application online. Our team reviews it and helps you get set up: a partner agreement you sign online, payout setup, and a short training before you go live, where your staff walk through Today's meals and meal codes. After that, neighbors can reserve meals at your counter, and we confirm your first real meal at a check-in 30 days after you go live.

Yes. We're starting in the greater Phoenix area, and restaurants and community partners anywhere in the US can apply. Our team will talk with you about bringing Pay It Forward to your area.

Yes, if you want one. When you sign the partner agreement you can choose a public page with your restaurant's name, address, phone, hours and how to get a meal there, and you can turn it off at any time. It never shows your contact email, your rate or your payouts.

No. Restaurant partners are paid for every meal they serve. Donors fund the meals; you cook and serve them.

Each week, our team reviews the meals each restaurant partner served and pays for them by bank transfer through Stripe. You can see your meals and payouts in your partner account.

No. Staff see today's meals and enter meal codes on any phone, tablet or computer. If you like, a tablet at your counter can run the Pay It Forward kiosk, so walk-in neighbors without a phone can reserve a meal.

Yes. In Partner settings you can turn walk-in reservations on or off, pause meal pickup orders from community partners, and set the largest pickup order you will take.

A shelter, outreach team, food bank, church or similar organization that picks up meals in bulk from restaurant partners and hands them out to the people it serves. Its staff can also reserve a meal for someone without a phone and print the meal code on a slip, and some have a tablet where people reserve a meal themselves. Community partners reach neighbors who can't get to a restaurant or don't have a phone.

From your partner account, request meals from a restaurant partner for a pickup time. The restaurant accepts and cooks, and hands the meals over when your team shows its pickup code.

No. The meals come from the community meal pool, and the restaurant partner is paid for them.

Organizations that work directly with people who need meals. Our team reviews each application and helps new partners get started.

Lists of shelters, free food, medical care and 24-hour crisis lines in Phoenix, Mesa, Tempe and Chandler, with phone numbers you can tap to call. They grew out of the Unhoused Help lists first published by Beanchain Coffee.

Yes. Share the link, or print the page from your browser to hand out. Outreach teams can also ask us for printed copies.

Please tell us through the contact form. We check every correction and update the guide.

Pay It Forward is a program of the Foundation for Innovation in Society, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Phoenix. Our team reviews partner applications, helps partners get started and pays restaurant partners for the meals they serve.

Pay It Forward is starting in the greater Phoenix area, where it began, and it is built to work anywhere in the US. Our first restaurant partners are joining in Phoenix, Mesa, Tempe and Chandler, and restaurants and community partners in other places can apply too.

As a pay-it-forward board on the wall at Beanchain Coffee in Mesa, Arizona. Customers paid for a meal in advance, a card went up on the board, and anyone who needed a meal took a card down. Pay It Forward brings the same idea to many restaurants, starting across the Phoenix metro.

We collect only what we need to run the program, we don't use ad trackers, and we never sell your information. Google Analytics runs on our main pages only if you allow it, and never on meal or help pages.

Use our contact form, which goes straight to the Pay It Forward team, or email hello@pifboard.com.