‘A chain of pie and kindness’
Pie It Forward challenge preserves best of annual South Side Pie Challenge, but with COVID-19 precautions
November is normally when Julie Vassilatos is nailing down final details for the South Side Pie Challenge she co-founded with her pal Kate Agarwal.
For the past eight years, hundreds of Chicagoans have piled inside theHyde ParkNeighborhood Club gym to share pie and talk and sing andwait with bated breath for a panel of judges (all professional chefs) to announce a winner in each of the four categories: fruit pie, nut pie, pumpkin/sweet potato pie, cream pie.
Oh, and theUniversity of Chicago Glee Club and other music ensembles usually perform.
“In a good year, the pie contest is kind of an iffy endeavor,” Vassilatos said. (Germ-wise, that is.)
“Everything about it is completely wrong for right now.”
Except for the joy and community and charity it engenders— proceeds go to theHyde Park& Kenwood Interfaith Council’s hunger programs. The event has raised more than $25,000 since 2012.
InApril, with the coronavirus keeping us mostly locked down and nerves starting to fray, Vassilatos organized a virtual pie challenge for friends and neighbors. Participants baked a pie of their choosing, made a two-minute video related to the pie and agreed to donate money to the Greater Chicago Food Depository.
People had so much fun making andwatching the videos, Vassilatos knew she had to think of away to keep theNovember event alive, even if gathering in-personwasn’t going to fly.
She came up with Pie It Forward, whichworks like this: You bake a pie and bring it to a friend. You make a donation— money or items— to a food-related charity of your choosing. You ask the recipient of your pie to do the same. Vassilatos calls it “a chain of pie and kindness.”
And it’s no longer limited to Chicago. Vassilatos is asking friends and neighbors to spread theword far and wide. Apie map on the Pie It Forward registration site (southsidepie.com) tracks names and locations of bakers and their beneficiaries.
“We’ve got 13 states and three countries so far,” Vassilatos said.
Susan and Chris Clappmoved toVassilatos’Hyde Park block over the summer. Susan Clapp was familiar with the South Side Pie Challenge but hadn’t participated. This year, she baked and delivered two peanut butter pies for friends and donated money to the Chicago Greater Food Depository.
Her parents, Lois and Tony Perrone, arrived fromTennessee recently to live with the Clapps for a few months. On a recent Saturday evening, when neighborswere gathered on their respective front lawns to enjoy a last gasp of autumnwarmth, Vassilatos introduced herself to the Perrones and told them about Pie It Forward.
Lois Perrone let her know she’d already baked and donated a scrumptious apple pie before arriving in Chicago.
“Juliewas like, ‘Wait, you’re the one in Tennessee?’ ” Susan Clapp recalled.
A smallworld, in terms of pie
and kindness.
“With everything that’s happening and being quarantined and missing friends, I just thought thiswas a really creative and funway to continue a tradition,” Susan Clapp said. “But adapted to the craziness of 2020.”
Vassilatos said itwas particularly important to her to continue the fundraising portion of the event this year.
“This pandemic has blown food insecurity wide open as a very apparent issue,” she said. “I reallywant to help make people aware their neighbors are in need.”
On the Pie It Forward Facebook page, she highlights the various charities to which participants are donating, hoping that gives people new ideas for where
to direct their time and generosity when they have them to spare.
“If everyone does something tiny, that turns into something big,” Vassilatos said.“We need to use our powers for good. Now more than ever inmy life, this is a time to bump up kindness and public kindness and intentional giving.”
She also recognizes that sometimes the folks most in need of a pie donation are the ones who aren’t in a place to turn around and bake and deliver a pie in turn.
“If someone is having a hard time in life, they’re not going to race around and pie it forward,” Vassilatos said. “And that’s totally fine.”
This chain is strong enough to work around a few missing links.
“When people bake pies, it’s a
very special thing,” Vassilatos said. “They put something of themselves in it— love and creativity. And hope! You put so much hope into a pie because it might notwork.”
Pie It Forward technically ends Nov. 30, butVassilatos said she might extend the effort.
“Ifwe’re close to all 50 states, I might say, ‘OK, a couple more days,’ ” she said.
If this year has taught us anything, it’s the need for flexibility and resourcefulness. And both go down better with a serving of pie and kindness.