WASHINGTON -- Sprinkles Cupcakes -- originator of the cupcake ATM -- has launched a friendly new initiative in the interest of expanding some politicians' minds and waistlines.
"Pay It Forward' is, according to a media release, a "cupcake-based anti-partisanship campaign based on Congressional cupcake gift shipments between parties."
From now until election day, Sprinkles' Georgetown shop is offering to send $40 worth of cupcakes, for free, from one Congressional office to another, so long as the sender and the recipient belong to different political parties.
The Washington City Paper uncovered the motivation for this special:
The promotion was inspired by last year’s Congressional Cupcake Wars, in which seven teams of Hill staffers competed in various baking challenges to win bragging rights and an edible trophy. Sprinkles founder Candace Nelson judged the competition last July and came up with the idea of the Pay It Forward campaign, saying she hopes “to inspire a spirit of bipartisanship on Capitol Hill.”
"Today is the first day," shift supervisor Natasha Vasquez told HuffPost DC on Wednesday afternoon. "I know for sure one order has been placed."
If one aim of "Pay It Forward" is collegiality, it's not clear that another is transparency. Vasquez said she didn't have access to the name of the office that had done the ordering or the office that would be receiving its dozen free cupcakes, and wasn't sure, anyway, if Sprinkles was planning to reveal publicly who was engaging in the sugary cross-aisle gesture.
Check out this slideshow to see where politicians eat when they leave their offices:
