A new freezer would be a beautiful thing to behold.

That’s what the Federal Way Multi-Service Center Food and Clothing Bank wrote in its application for the Pepsi Refresh Project.

Pepsi decided to spend $20 million on funding community projects this year, rather than spend the money on Super Bowl ads.

The concept is fairly simple. People can go online with their idea for a project that would have a positive impact in the United States. Projects receive votes through the website or through social media networks like Facebook. The top vote getters receive funding for their project.

Each month, up to 1,000 ideas can be submitted online. Of those applications, 32 grant recipients are selected, with up to $1.3 million given out each month. The Multi-Service Center Food and Clothing Bank is competing for one of ten $25,000 grants. They hope to put the money toward a walk-in freezer, allowing the storage of additional frozen items.

Currently, the food bank runs into trouble when larger corporations, such as a chain grocery store, donate a large amount of frozen food. Because the food bank has very little available freezer space, it is forced to give out the food very quickly, supervisor Terri Turner said.

“(The freezer) would allow us to give it out equitably,” Turner said.

Turner said the addition of the freezer would allow the food bank to freeze and preserve other donations — and serve more people.

The large freezer would be 10 feet by 12 feet with a door big enough to accommodate a pallet truck for deliveries.

Projects that are accepted by Pepsi Refresh each month are placed online for voting. Voters can log on and vote for up to 10 projects each day, although they can’t vote for the same project more than once a day. The top projects receive the funding within about four weeks.

The Federal Way Multi-Service Center Food and Clothing Bank still has some ground to make up, currently sitting right around the 200 vote mark.

Turner said the project has brought the organization some new friends. There are several groups who vote for the freezer project every day, including another food bank as well as a project that would raise funds for grandparents raising their grandkids.

“That’s kind of cool, the way that people connect,” Turner said.

Voting will continue through the rest of the month.

“I really think this is how it happens,” Turner said. “If the community gets behind it…I do believe the people who win are the ones whose communities get behind them.”

Cast your vote

For more information or to vote for the project, visit www.refresheverything.com.