A Piece of Pizza for Peace – A local movement spearheaded by pizza shop owners. People who are dedicated to their community, are leaders, and are passionate about peace. These are the people you want to get to be your partners, all working together for one goal: Peace!

To make a difference in your community and the world, what are the steps you as a local pizza shop owner need to take in this movement?

Step One:  Decide how you personally, individually, will support a local peace organization.

A good starting point? An interfaith or multi-faith organization. Most towns,cities or trade areas have one of these groups. If your area doesn’t, you could pick a single faith community, church,mosque, temple, or ashram. Another possibility could be any organization that supports peace in some way. This will probably vary from town to town.

Find that nonprofit organization that best supports peace in your community. Pick one that supports the greatest number of people in your community. One that is the biggest on peace.You don’t want to be polarizing in any way, so find the organization that supports everybody and everything in regards to peace. Supporting peace is universal.

Step Two:  Decide which of the five levels of support you’re willing to give.

• Diamond Level: You choose to donate 30% of your sales on that one day, Sept. 21.
• Platinum Level: You choose to donate 20% of your sales on that one day, Sept. 21.
• Gold Level:  You choose to donate 10% of your sales on that one day, Sept. 21.
• Silver Level:  You choose to donate   5% of your sales on that one day, Sept. 21.
• Bronze Level: You choose to donate 3% of your sales on that one day, Sept. 21.

Once you’ve decided on your level of support, you then decide how you’re going to split your donation between a local peace organization and a National Peace Organization, such as, United Religions Initiative, Peace Action, or Pace E Bene. A 50-50 split is recommended,but this decision is up to each individual pizza shop owner.

Each community may be different. Some communities may need to do more locally, while others may do more nationally or worldwide.

Step Three:  Approach fellow small pizza shop owners to get them to join A Piece of Pizza for Peace, to support peace locally and peace worldwide.

Keep in mind the definition of pizza shop for purposes of this movement. This is any shop that has pizza in its name or as its primary food. Participants may sell other things, but pizza is primary. So an Italian restaurant that sells two pizzas doesn’t qualify.

There’s no rule about how many pizza shop owners can network together. The minimum should be two, because for a truce, you have to have two partners. You can have as many partners as you want depending on the size of your trade area.

Step Four:  Work together on networking in your community.

You can try a wide variety of media. Community television stations, newspapers, radio, sell or give away tee-shirts, make flyers, use social media. Just get the word out.

Promote A Piece of Pizza for Peace locally. Everyone involved will work together to promote global peace through National Peace Organizations.

There’s no need to spend money on advertising. This is a movement, not a brand promotion. It’s public service. It’s newsworthy. Local news outlets should be approached with that in mind.

Get involved in LeTip,  Business Networking International, Gold Star, or Master Networks. If there’s not a chapter in your local area these  organizations would probably talk to you about starting one.

For inspiration and ideas, go to the Peace One Day web site. Jeremy Gilley has information there, including TED talks.