A Bigger Piece of the Pie: Stacy's® Pita Chips Draws Attention to Funding Gap Faced by Women Founders via 2024 Stacy's Rise Project

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Nov 09, 2023, 09:00 ET

Stacy's Rise Pies, available now through Thanksgiving, aim to help drive awareness of the disparity in funding for women business owners.

PLANO, Texas, Nov. 9, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Women own nearly 50 percent of all U.S. businesses¹, yet receive only 2 percent of venture capital (VC) funding² – a tiny piece of the pie. Stacy's^® Pita Chips, a brand with a history of empowering women business owners, is proud to continue championing these entrepreneurs to get a bigger piece of the funding pie through the launch of the 2024 Stacy's Rise Project. In addition to awarding 15 founders a $25,000 grant, mentorship and community resources, this year Stacy's is also introducing Stacy's Rise Pies.

A Bigger Piece of the Pie: Stacy’s® Pita Chips Draws Attention to Funding Gap Faced by Women Founders via 2024 Stacy’s Rise Project

Stacy's Rise Pies: Offering Women Founders a Bigger Slice
Just in time for the holiday season, Stacy's Rise is offering pie-crust cookies that provide people with more ways to directly support women-owned businesses. The catch? These pie deliveries illustrate what 2 percent of the pie looks like.

Former Stacy's Rise Winner Janie Deegan of Janie's Life-Changing Baked Goods created the Stacy's Rise "Pies," inspired by her iconic Pie Crust Cookies. Deegan has brought passion for baking with a purpose to the kitchen table as she also provides second-chance employment, provides mentorship for New York City youth, and donates time and baked goods to local community centers and homeless shelters.

"Receiving a grant from Stacy's in 2017 allowed me to quit my day job, fully pursue my passions, and focus on making positive changes in my community," said Deegan. "Every year, Stacy's Rise helps more women make their entrepreneurial dreams a reality and those women give right back to the community. I was thrilled to team up with Stacy's again to encourage other founders to apply to the Stacy's Rise Project and help draw attention to how much more funding should be going to support women entrepreneurs."

A special take on Janie's Famous Pie Crust Cookie, Stacy's Rise Pies includes flaky pie crust and a layer of apple pie filling; topped with caramelized streusel and Stacy's Cinnamon Sugar Pita Chips. Stacy's Rise Pies are available via StacysRise.com through Thanksgiving, or while supplies last, for $25.00 plus shipping. In addition, every Stacy's Rise Pies order will also include a selection of products from some of the previous Stacy's Rise Project winners over the last five years, including:

Adrienne Walker, Blue Henry
Kristyn Carriere, 7 Summits Snacks
Michelle Razavi, ELAVI
Mimi Johnson, The Glamatory
Monica Sunny, The Chai Box
Tiffany Griffin, Bright Black

100 percent of the proceeds from the Stacy's Rise Pie purchases will go to Deegan's business, Janie's Life-Changing Baked Goods.

Stacy's Rise Project is Back
Applications for the 2024 Stacy's Rise Project are officially open through December 1. Founders across the U.S. and Canada are encouraged to apply for consideration on Stacy's Rise website. The 10 winners in the U.S. and five winners in Canada will be announced in early 2024 and each will receive a $25,000 grant, mentorship from Frito-Lay and PepsiCo leadership and a built-in community of powerful women.

"The goal of the Stacy's Rise Project is not only to spread awareness of the funding gap women-owned businesses face, but to ensure these founders have access to resources, mentorship and community to help them overcome the statistics," said Rhasheda Boyd, vice president of marketing, Frito-Lay North America. "Because at Stacy's, we believe that when one woman rises, we all rise."

As a woman-founded business that grew from a humble sandwich cart to a household snack brand, Stacy's Pita Chips has invested over $1 million in over 60 women-owned businesses since 2017. With support from longtime grant partner Hello Alice, the application numbers increase every year, totaling over 29,000 Stacy's Rise Project applications received since its inaugural year.

To learn more about the Stacy's Rise Project, share the application with your favorite woman founder or get your hands on your very own Stacy's Rise Pie, visit StacysRise.com.

About Stacy's^® Snacks
Stacy's Snacks is one of the many brands that make up Frito-Lay North America, the $23 billion convenient foods division of PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ: PEP), which is headquartered in Purchase, NY. Learn more about Frito-Lay at the corporate website, www.fritolay.com.

About Frito-Lay North America
Frito-Lay North America is the $23 billion convenient foods division of PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ: PEP), which is headquartered in Purchase, NY. Frito-Lay snacks include Lay's^® and Ruffles^® potato chips, Doritos^® and Tostitos^® tortilla chips and branded dips, Cheetos^® snacks, Stacy's^® pita chips, PopCorners^® popped-corn snack, SunChips^® multigrain snacks and Fritos^® corn chips. The company operates 30+ manufacturing facilities across the U.S. and Canada, more than 200 distribution centers and services 315,000 retail customers per week through its direct-store-delivery model. Learn more about Frito-Lay at the corporate website, www.fritolay.com, on X (@fritolay), on Instagram (@fritolay) and on Facebook (Frito-Lay).

About PepsiCo
PepsiCo products are enjoyed by consumers more than one billion times a day in more than 200 countries and territories around the world. PepsiCo generated more than $86 billion in net revenue in 2022, driven by a complementary beverage and convenient foods portfolio that includes Lay's^®, Doritos^®, Cheetos^®, Gatorade^®, Pepsi-Cola^®, Mountain Dew^®, Quaker^®, and SodaStream^®. PepsiCo's product portfolio includes a wide range of enjoyable foods and beverages, including many iconic brands that generate more than $1 billion each in estimated annual retail sales.

Guiding PepsiCo is our vision to Be the Global Leader in Beverages and Convenient Foods by Winning with pep+ (PepsiCo Positive). pep+ is our strategic end-to-end transformation that puts sustainability and human capital at the center of how we will create value and growth by operating within planetary boundaries and inspiring positive change for planet and people. For more information, visit www.pepsico.com, and follow on X, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn @PepsiCo.

About Hello Alice
Hello Alice is a free, multichannel platform that helps businesses launch and grow. With a community over one million business owners in all 50 states and across the globe, Hello Alice is building the largest network of owners in the country while tracking data and trends to increase the success rate for entrepreneurs. Our partners include enterprise business services, government agencies, and institutions looking to serve small- and medium-business owners to ensure increased revenues and promote scale. A Latina owned company, founded by Carolyn Rodz and Elizabeth Gore, we believe in business for all by providing access to all owners including women, people of color, veterans, and everyone with an entrepreneurial spirit. To learn more, visit www.helloalice.com, as well as X, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook.

About Janie's Life-Changing Baked Goods
Janie's Life-Changing Baked Goods was founded in 2015 by Janie Deegan, after years of struggling with addiction and homelessness. Working to integrate herself back into society and reconstruct her life, Janie re-discovered her passion for baking. She found joy in baking treats for friends and fueled by encouragement, challenged herself to sell some of these treats. Janie's became a full-blown small business in no time, with the invention of the famous Pie Crust Cookie shortly thereafter. Janie's Life-Changing Baked Goods now has three brick-and-mortar locations in New York – East Harlem, Upper West Side, and most recently, the West Village – in addition to the thriving e-commerce business. Janie goes above and beyond to give back to her community, providing second chance employment at all bakery locations and mentorship for New York City youth. Janie – along with her inspiring story – has been featured with The New York Times, CNBC, NPR, The Today Show, Good Morning America, The Jennifer Hudson Show and more.

Contact:
Jayme Mizzoni
[email protected]


¹	U.S. Small Business Administration, National Women's Small Business Month
²	Credit Suisse, Entrepreneurial gender gap – funding is still a struggle