For most college and university students, watching viral videos on YouTube is an everyday ritual. Sathya Peri ’17 is no different. In October 2015 when he and some of his friends heard about the video of a University of Connecticut student verbally assaulting a cafeteria manager while demanding bacon-jalapeno mac and cheese, they were shocked and appalled.

Peri and his friends wondered what they could do to turn the buzz from this negative video into a project that could promote social good among college students. After a weekend of brainstorming, Peri and his team thought “what if we could make that bacon-jalapeno mac and cheese for the homeless?” They quickly launched a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo and raised enough money for about 100 bowls.

“When we learned that 49 million Americans struggle to put food on the table each day, we wanted to create a project that could be a small part of the solution,” says Peri.

During the first few days of the campaign the page received hundreds of clicks, but had zero donations. The team changed their strategy and began reaching out directly to family and friends via phone to explain their mission. Once the campaign received $100, the group members began pushing the campaign page out through their personal social media accounts. Within 9 days the group reached their goal of $500 to buy the necessary mac and cheese supplies.

Students on a Mission

After going through their list of donations on Indiegogo, Peri noticed that the majority of donations were from students at Bentley and other college students in the Boston area. The founding team of five, which also included fellow Bentley student Devin Quinn ’19 and Erick Pinos ’17 from MIT, decided to expand their mission and invite other students and friends in their network to assist in passing out the mac and cheese bowls in Boston.

With 40 volunteers and 120 meals in tow, the group dispersed throughout the city on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, naming the day “Social Good Saturday.” They made their way through Harvard Square, Central Square, Park Street, Downtown Crossing and South Station handing out meals to any homeless person they found along the way.

While providing food for the homeless was an important part of their goal, the founding team really wanted the volunteers to use it as an opportunity to see the homeless population of Boston in a new light by interacting with them one-one-one. “At that moment, the jalapeno bacon mac and cheese became merely a vehicle to start conversations with some really interesting people and bring back humanity to such a marginalized population,” says Peri.

Building a Movement

With 21 days remaining on their campaign and donations continuing to come in through their crowdfunding page, the team  expanded their movement further. The group partnered with local youth shelter Y2Y Harvard Square with a  goal to raise an additional $4,500 to buy 30 jackets, hats, gloves, and socks for all of the teens housed at the shelter. To date, the team has raised $3,931 dollars through their crowd funding campaign and other small campus events at Bentley and the MIT.

Going forward, Peri and his team plan to use their Changing Lives Facebook page to spread the word that serving the community is easier than people think. “Going into this campaign, we didn’t have any money. We didn’t have press or a video to get our message out. We were just a group of friends that had an idea to create a positive impact and came together to make it happen. It was that simple.”