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Cocca’s Pizza ties teamwork with children’s book at Union Elementary
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Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.Union Elementary kindergarten students used their hands to flatten dough.
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Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.Steve Cocca displayed a bowl of flour used to make pizza for kindergartners at Union Elementary School.
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Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.Union Elementary kindergarten students helped mix pizza ingredients.
By TIM CLEVELAND
Having recently read the book “The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza,” which is a story of helping each other, Union Elementary kindergarten students were treated by an appearance March 12 of Steve Cocca, owner of Cocca’s Pizza, which has six area locations.
Cocca was joined by his mom Tina Cocca, sister Angel Gabriel, niece Nicola Gabriel and close friend of the family Andrew Umeck, who helped him educate the students on pizzas and the importance of teamwork.
“It’s really fun. We get to talk about ingredients, how we make things,” said kindergarten teacher Joelle Pillar. “We read ‘The Little Red Hen.’ They get to talk about how to make the pizza, what things go into it. I think that it’s really interesting because a lot of people get to finally see how Cocca’s Pizza gets made, not just the delivery guy at the door.”
Fellow kindergarten teacher Gina Chiaro said the event has been going on for several years at the school.
“A few years ago we celebrated our 100th day of school,” she said. “Though we already passed the 100th day of school (this year) we still wanted to bring this in and include it in our cirriculum. We just read ‘The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza.’ We’re using it to teach character, setting, main idea and make it fun. Step by step directions, that kind of thing.”
Steve Cocca began by asking the students if they liked pizza, naturally bringing up every hand in the gym. He then educated them on the ingredients that go into making dough. After tossing flower, salt, years and water into a bowl, two students at a time were brought up to stir the ingredients together.
Cocca then showed the children the finished dough, with one students exclaiming, “It looks like a big marshmallow.” Cocca tossed the dough into the air to shape it into a circle and fitted it into a pan, then continued the process by having students add pizza sauce, cheese and pepperoni.
A Cocca’s Pizza employee delivered pizzas to the gym for the children to eat and they drank fruit punch.
“We’re excited to come out and be with the kids, teach them some things about making pizza. It’s a lot of fun and they have a blast doing it,” Cocca said. “They get learn the ingredients of the pizzas, how we make the dough, where the dough comes from, how it’s processed, how the cheese is made and the favorite toppings on pizzas.”