Nick DiCicco, Staff Writer
“We’re able to provide bars, so we might as well give it away and use it for kindness. So that’s what we’ve been doing.” (Bobica Bars)
During winter break, former and current entrepreneurship students used their businesses, Bobica Bars, and Shears Hair Studio to help out those in need in Philadelphia, with food, clothes, and haircuts.
On Saturday, Jan. 9, Harrison Nastasi, 21, a senior entrepreneurship major and founder of Bobica Bars, hosted his largest outreach event yet as part of the company’s outreach program, “Beyond Bobica,” at Broad Street Love in Philadelphia.
Nastasi started Bobica Bars to help his mom, who has arthritis, gain superfood nutrients through an accessible snack. His mission of helping others does not stop with the bar but continues through the program.
“I wanted to help my mom find a better solution to get her superfood health benefits. I want to help our local homeless community,” Nastasi said. “We’re so blessed and lucky to be able to give back hundreds of bars because of supporters and teaming up with local entrepreneurs.”
Nastasi launched Beyond Bobica two years ago and, since then, has held biannual give-back events where he collects clothes from the community.
“It started off as one car of clothes, three cars, and now a big box truck of hundreds of granola bars, gloves, scarves, hats, and beanies,” Nastasi said. “So definitely this is our largest scale.”
Co-founders of the company, Justin Iannelli, 21, a senior marketing major with an entrepreneurship minor, along with Frank Kopa, 23, a Rowan alumnus, helped Nastasi set up, hand out bars, and talk to attendees.
“We’re able to provide bars, so we might as well give them away and use them for kindness. So that’s what we’ve been doing,” Iannelli said. “It’s great to see, and it’s awesome to see how effective it is in the community as well.”
Along with Bobica Bars, Rowan alumnus Julian Doroteo, 28, brought his and his girlfriend’s Rowan-born business, Shears Hair Studio, to Broad Street Love.
“We created Shears because we wanted to create a safe space for people with like-minded personalities. Our goal is not only to make people look good but also feel good,” Doroteo said.
Doroteo and other barbers at his shop take appointments, but whenever possible, hold and participate in community events such as toy drives and offer free haircuts to veterans and active military on Veterans Day.
“Our main purpose is giving back,” Doroteo said. “The community helped us get big, so our only option is to give back. Help those who helped us.”
The event lasted from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Shears Hair Studio gave out 13 haircuts, and Bobica Bars handed out dozens of bars from the roughly thousand they brought, along with a box truck full of clothes for Broad Street Love’s clothing donation.
Chyna Parker, the director of community engagement at Broad Street Love, says the mission of Broad Street Love is “radical hospitality,” and that donations and services like those offered by Nastasi and Doroteo mean so much to the community.
“We can wake up and say, ‘I’m going to go get my hair done, I’m going to go get a haircut, and some of these people can’t,” Parker said.
Parker has worked for Broad Street Love for 7.5 years, and says the climate of the world right now is hard, but being able to make a change is a joy in her life that she hopes could extend to others.
“I always say people are one cheque away from being on the street,” Parker said. “These people are human beings like us, and I just want people to know that and treat them as such.”
Parker and Tatyana Woodard, the program associate at Broad Street Love, said it is encouraging to see young people getting involved in community outreach.
“I always say that I think this generation that is coming up gets it. It touches my heart to see so many young people get involved with social justice issues,” Woodard said.
Nastasi plans to continue his outreach with another event being planned at Broad Street Love in June.
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