Sometimes a small idea can catch fire and become something bigger than originally intended. That is exactly what happened when Jeannie Ryan and her husband, Steve, had the idea of donating gift certificates from a local restaurant to the local food bank.

Ryan originally came up with the idea when the outbreak of COVID-19 forced restaurants to stop dine-in services, along with putting many out of work.

“We wanted to help support local business along with people that might be struggling to get by,” Ryan said.

So Ryan went to Euro Pizza Café and bought 100 certificates for 14-inch cheese pizzas with toppings and then donated them to the Extended Hands Food Bank to be placed in the packages they hand out.

After buying the initial certificates, Ryan contacted the Fountain Hills Unified School District to see if it was possible to hand out certificates to students as well.

“The District has been doing a great job of providing meals for students during the week,” Ryan said. “So I hoped that we could help send students home with these certificates to use over the weekend when the school isn’t doing their meal program.”

Ryan was able to start passing out certificates to FHUSD students and, along with expanding the recipients of these gifts, the restaurants donating certificates also expanded with Señor Taco providing gift certificates for Ryan to pass out as well.

As more and more people got involved, Ryan’s idea caught the attention of the Fountain Hills Community Foundation, who approached her about setting up a website where people could make tax deductible donations to buy more certificates to donate. Previously, the Ryans had been purchasing the certificates out of their own pockets.

“We have just been blown away by the response to this,” Ryan said. “It really is amazing how one small idea can make a difference.”

To donate to the Fountain Hills One Meal at a Time program, go online to fountainhillsgives.com.