Run by three UW-Madison students, local online ordering service BadgerBites.com has seen unprecedented traffic in the wake of demonstrations at the Capitol over the past two weeks.
Started in February 2010, the company allows users to order from 60 different Madison restaurants through the site without paying service charges.
BadgerBites co-owner and UW-Madison senior Eric Martell said orders have come through the site from all 50 states and from approximately 13 different countries, including Afghanistan and Norway.
The founders initially began promoting BadgerBites through flyers and campus-wide e-mails. Now, over a quarter of the Madison student body is registered on the site as a customer, according to Martell.
Many supporters who cannot attend demonstrations have ordered food to be delivered to the Capitol through BadgerBites. The business has yielded several hundred orders a day since the protests began, according to Martell.
Currently, the organization offers Ian's Pizza, Pizza Di Roma, Gumby's Pizza and Silver Mine Subs as options to send directly to the Capitol.
Martell said BadgerBites is ""all for supporting the demonstrators"" politically and is ""more than happy to facilitate the food aspect.""
While their business is beginning to take off, Martell said the founders are still able to balance their lives as college students.
""It takes high levels of organization and a certain amount of sacrifice as well [to manage three times the average volume of orders],"" Martell said.
In the spirit of serving the larger-Madison community, BadgerBites donates 5 percent of the profits from their order to one of nine different organizations, from which the customer can choose, including the Boys and Girls Club of Dane County and AIDS Network.
Martell said through this program, several thousand dollars have been donated to the Madison community.
BadgerBites is looking to expand to UW-Milwaukee, the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, the University of Iowa and Iowa State campuses over the summer.
