After Carolee Hazard paid a stranger’s grocery tab, she was rewarded with $93. Hazard decided to donate the money and in turn started a movement that has raised more than $100,000 for a California food bank.
Jenni Ware was having one of those days, about a year ago. Standing at the Trader Joe’s checkout with a full cart of groceries, she fumbled for a wallet that wouldn’t appear. Hazard sympathized from her spot in line, behind Ware.
“She was heading out of town for 10 days,” Hazard told AOL News. “The last thing you need is, where’s your wallet?”
Many people at the California grocery likely felt sorry for Ware, but Hazard acted on her empathy, paying for Ware’s $207 haul.
“It was a knee-jerk reaction. I said, ‘Hey if I pay for your groceries will you send me a check?’” Ware paid her back the next day, topping off the money owed with a $93 bonus, a generous reward for Hazard’s trust.
Hazard might have used the money for a massage, as Ware suggested, or simply returned the money, as she initially planned, but Facebook changed the fate of the $93 and eventually generated $100,000 for Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties.
A retired biochemist, Hazard stays at home to care for her two daughters, 8 and 10. She posted to Facebook after paying Ware’s check and posted again when Ware sent her $93.
“I know what I’m going to do with the money. What would you guys do with it?”
Her friends told her to donate the money. She agreed, adding her own $93 to double the amount. But where should she donate? One Facebook friend suggested Second Harvest, a food pantry, since the original exchange happened at a grocery store. Viral Facebook magic ensued.
“A friend of mine said, ‘I think this is awesome and I want to throw in $93 as well,’” Hazard said. “And then another friend did and another one … within four hours we had $600. By the next morning it was almost $1,000.”
Hazard told Ware, who told her Facebook friends, and the money kept flowing into Second Harvest. A little more than a year after the effort began, the 93 Dollar Club has raised $100,000 without making a single request.
Second Harvest can turn $1 into two healthy meals. The 93 Dollar Club’s $100,000 translates to roughly 200,000 meals.
While Hazard’s “pie in the sky … wonderful cherry on top” dream would be an individual or corporation matching the money raised, she’s amazed by the generosity of those who already have given: A gentleman who grew up poor donated $9,300 in honor of his recently deceased mother. Despite tough circumstances, she always found enough food to feed a hungry kid from the neighborhood.
A local dentist, the son of migrant workers who was often hungry when young, gave $4,500 in matching funds. A friend’s 8-year-old daughter donated 93 cents from her allowance.
A single mom’s gift most inspired Hazard.
“A woman … sent a message saying, ‘Hey, I’m a single mom. I’m working 20 hours a week. I’m in grad school, but can I donate $9.30?’ At the end of each month, she has between $20 and $25 wiggle room, and she was wanting to donate $9.30,” Hazard recalled.
“What I did was nice. What she did was amazing.”
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
