NEW YORK (AP) — Pepsi is expanding its popular Refresh Project charitable program to help communities affected by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
The soft drink and snack maker said Thursday it will give an additional $1.3 million in grants next month to projects that will help communities in the five-state region — Texas, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama.
Since January, the Refresh Project has been giving $1.3 million for 32 grants each month. People submit ideas online for everything from literacy projects to programs that provide tuxedos for prom. Then online voters choose winning projects.
The company saw a need for relief in the area and wanted to use the Refresh Project to help, said Lauren Hobart, chief marketing officer of sparkling beverages for Pepsi Beverages America, the unit that runs Pepsi.
"It just seemed like a natural evolution of the program," she said, adding Pepsi expects to do similar efforts focusing on specific events or locations in the future.
People can start submitting ideas for projects July 12, for anything that helps people in the region. Pepsi said project ideas can't be related to cleanup efforts or the environment because other agencies are handling that. Possible projects could be providing job training or money for arts efforts in local communities.
"I think we're going to end up being surprised with what consumers come back with," Hobart said.
The Refresh Project has been a public-relations coup for Pepsi and has drawn a huge volume of suggested projects and online buzz.
The company has been surprised by the variety of projects — and the number — that people submit each month. The project has given more than $7 million through May this year and expects to spend a total of at least $20 million. So far, more than 31 million votes have been cast.
The company accepts only 1,000 new ideas each month — so they can vet each one, Hobart said. That limit is reached within minutes after a new cycle begins on the first of each month, which happened Thursday morning. People campaign for votes through Facebook, Twitter and in e-mail messages to get their projects approved.
The Refresh Project is Pepsi's major marketing effort this year. The brand sat out the Super Bowl this year — where it had been a major advertiser for years — to focus on the project.
Shares of PepsiCo Inc., based in Purchase, N.Y., fell 12 cents to $60.83 in afternoon trading Thursday.
