Slices of Support: Jess Morse the Picket Line Pizza Hero
Jess Morse’s car painted by IATSE members in support of the strikes.
Photo by Kera McKeon
EXT. Burbank Costco - Day
JESS MORSE collects her daily order of eighteen pizzas from the food pickup window.
Since day one of the WGA strike and continuing through the SAG-AFTRA strike, Writers Access Support Staff Training Program alum Jess Morse has spearheaded the Pizza Strike Fund, a community aid program providing free pizza to striking entertainment workers at picketed studio gates. With over $28,000 dollars raised and 2700 pizzas delivered, Morse has certainly made her mark in helping the entertainment strike efforts.
“When the strike started, I thought it would be good to help out with my Costco membership… and pizza felt like a no-brainer. I brought snacks day one of the strike, pizza I paid for day two, and by day three, it was the Pizza Strike Fund,” Morse explains while driving her strike-painted Prius.
Jess Morse (right) passes out pizzas and supplies to volunteer delivery drivers Dan Ast (left) and Mendel Bain (center).
Photo by Kera McKeon
At 10 A.M. Morse’s day begins as she hands out pizzas to a handful of volunteers to deliver at picketed studio gates across the San Fernando Valley. Across town, in the “Costco desert” as Morse puts it, more volunteers deliver stacks of Dominoes to picketers at the Hollywood studios.
After sending her volunteers off, Morse tweets out an announcement to let picketers know pizza is on the way, how much money the fund has earned, and how much is left. Morse is meticulous in her organization of the fund and its services. She keeps detailed records of donors and informs them when their specific dollars have been spent on pizza and where it’s going. Each box is marked with a custom sticker she designed telling consumers who specifically paid for their lunch.
Morse tweets out that the pizzas are on the way.
Photo by Kera McKeon
“We have a lot of repeat donors, but we’re encroaching on a thousand [donors]. I keep track of them all in a spreadsheet, but there became a point where one of my formulas stopped working because I ran out of rows. I didn’t expect it to go on this many days or get this many people,” Morse says.
The most common donation? Eleven dollars, just a few cents over the $10.97 needed for a whole pizza. The largest donation? One thousand dollars from an otherwise-confidential writer of one of Morse’s favorite childhood movies. “I keep my donors confidential, but for myself I have this list of good people who have donated and given me, a stranger, money,” explains Morse.
While driving from NBC Universal in Universal City to the CBS Radford gate in Studio City, Morse details her journey toward becoming a writer. “I’ve always wanted to be a writer since I was a tiny little baby. I watched 30 Rock and decided I wanted to be a TV writer. Before then it didn’t really cross my mind that that was a job, but then I realized I love TV writing, it is a real job, and I wanted to do that,” Morse continues, “[I write] comedy. Very irreverent, very silly. I like live-action, I like animation, but all my live-action [samples] are very cartoonish.”
Morse (left) chats with Green Grocery Envelope Aide organizer Joelle Garfinkle (right).
Photo by Kera McKeon
As a Pre-WGA writer, Morse is tasked with looking for ways to break in. After graduating from Emerson College in Boston and moving out to Los Angeles, Morse was accepted to the Writers Guild Foundation’s Writers Access Support Staff Training Program. The program provides writers from underrepresented communities education and training on how to be a writers’ assistant and script coordinator. “It was such a great class. For me the most intimidating part was getting in a room and not knowing what I was expected to do, but the class covered everything,” says Morse. “It taught us how to be in a room and everything with Final Draft. We had great talks with different showrunners. My cohort was also super great. I’ve got people from my class delivering pizzas and donating.”
At every stop, Morse was met with faces happy to see her for more than the pizza. From the hugs from strike captains, well wishes from picketers asking about her life, and catch-up chats with other writers trying to do their part such as Joelle Garfinkle of the Green Envelope Grocery Aide and Andrea Alba-Von Buren of Dean’s Coffee, it was clear that Morse has made friends on the picket line by creating and running the Pizza Strike Fund.
“With the strike and the [Writers Access Support Staff Training] program I feel a lot more connected. I’m in the middle of it. I haven’t broken in yet, but it feels a lot more hopeful. It’s nice to meet people through the fund. I can show up with something genuine that people want and be my own genuine self…. And all my volunteers. I’ll kill for you,” Morse says after dropping off the last pizza of the day.
Donations to the Pizza Strike Fund can be sent to @Jess-Morse via Venmo.
Written by Kera McKeon