This weekend the hot event going on in Columbus, Ohio is PotatoStock 2014, the realization of Zack Brown’s jokey potato salad Kickstarter campaign that gained him over $55,000 and instant internet notoriety, when the campaign went viral in July. The festival will feature local bands, food trucks, beer vendors, potato-sack races and of course, lots and lots of potato salad.
The festival came as a work around to Kickstarter’s policy that explicitly states funds raised cannot be donated to charity, so backers contributions can’t be used for causes they didn’t intend them to be. Fulfilling the Kickstarter, the Idaho Potato Commission and corporate sponsors have donated supplies so that Brown and his team of volunteers can produce the agreed upon amount of potato salad — 300lbs.! — while all backers are technically invited to attend the event, which is free for everyone.
Last month, Brown partnered with the Columbus Foundation to start an endowment that will aid area charities that fight hunger and homelessness.
The account, started with $20,000 in post-campaign corporate donations, will grow after proceeds from PotatoStock are added. (Most of the Kickstarter money will be used to stage the Saturday event and fulfill backer incentives.)
“His fund will have potential way after this potato salad is forgotten,” said Lisa Jolley, the foundation’s director of donors and development.
This guy could have easily pocketed the money, threw some potatoes and mayonnaise in a bowl (or vinegar, if you roll that way) to technically fulfill his campaign and then bought a yacht to sail on Lake Erie with some models like the Leonardo DiCaprio of Ohio. But instead he’s going to do a lot of good and help a lot of people, beyond the initial $55,000. Stuff like this makes you restore faith in humanity until the next hooker in Florida whose last name matches the name of her crime comes along.
Here’s Zack Brown reading the names of every single person who contributed to his Kickstarter in a three hour and forty-five minute video that was live-streamed yesterday: