Starting a movement to help solve a social problem that plagues your city can seem like an impossible task. The belief in oneself, organizing others, having the discipline to achieve your goal, and having faith you will succeed are all hard realities that one must face in order to make an impact. Luckily we have people like Joe Cox to inspire us to believe in being the change we wish to see. Joe Cox started the PMA Bike Ride in 2016 to throw a pizza party for the hungry on the streets of Philadelphia. PMA stands for Positive Mental Attitude and Joe has been using that attitude to feed thousands of people over the past three years. Joe believes having PMA is the foundation for being the change in your neighborhood and if he can start a movement, so can you. Through fundraising and using social media Joe has gained a big enough following to run for City Council in the upcoming November 2019 election. His intentions were always to help the downtrodden and this November he will have the opportunity to make that voice for them louder.
My students and I recently volunteered with the PMA Bike Ride in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia. We gave out free pizza, water, fruit, and juice to the local citizens. It was amazing to see the camaraderie among the citizens once they realized what we were doing. Everyone we were serving stuck around to talk to one another and participated in helping to feed others. One citizen even provided comic relief on this hot day by cracking jokes that included “we got free pizza here ! Hot and ready come and get it ! Free pizza, only two dollars !” The amount of gratitude that was in the air was refreshing. We gave out 25 pizzas in about 20 minutes and impacted close to one hundred lives. If you want to volunteer with the PMA Bike Ride follow them on Facebook and Instagram to stay up to date with where they will be throwing their next party. Check out our podcast with Joe under the pictures at the top of the page and watch our volunteer video below.