Nicky Bandera: Feeding Those In Need Through Food and Fashion, One Tomato At A Time
Nicky Bandera, is the Founder of Project Paulie and lays out her path to creating Project Paulie pretty simply stating, “I just started cooking.”
Nicky’s Pivot with Purpose came in March of 2020, as the world locked down due to the pandemic, Nicky found herself and many of her friends, family, & colleagues out of work.
She knew she had to do something, so she started cooking.
At 5:00am each morning, Nicky would start making her mom’s sauce and baking lasagna for the people in her circle who needed a little boost. Before she could realize the impact, the circle grew and she had sent over 2000 lasagnas to people in need, with the support of a core group of friends and her surrounding community who helped sponsor and deliver the care packages.
“We feed each other," is how Project Paulie was born.
Nicky wanted to keep going but realized that maybe baking thousands of lasagnas each morning was not sustainable. Tapping into her fashion design background, Nicky worked with local artists to create the Project Paulie Tomato and featured it on a series of beanies. Each beanie color was assigned to a local organization, which would then receive proceeds from each hat sale.
The "Little Tomato" is a reminder of where Project Paulie started, symbolizing the tomato sauce Nicky made for all those lasagnas and when people ask “What’s The Tomato All About?”, it’s an opportunity to talk about the organizations supported by the purchase of each hat, and a chance to get people to connect and think of ways we can help our community.
In August 2022, operations moved out of Nicky’s home and into Project Paulie’s official headquarters (“the House”) on Prince Street in the North End of Boston, MA.
At Project Paulie, we feed each other in two ways: supporting local organizations with our Little Tomato Shop, and local artists through various projects and artist collaborations.
Since its inception, Project Paulie has partnered with almost 30 organizations who focus primarily on helping fight food and housing insecurity in the greater Boston area and beyond.
When you buy something from the Little Tomato Shop featuring the iconic Project Paulie Tomato, 20% of sales are donated to charitable organizations all across the globe.
Learn more about how you can support Project Paulie, no matter what part of the world you live in and become a part of the movement #wefeedeachother.
