In Pennsylvania, pizzerias team up to benefit soup kitchen

By DAVID SINGLETON

The Times-Tribune

SCRANTON, PA.

A baker’s dozen of pizza shops that have banded together to provide one meal a month at St. Francis of Assisi Kitchen hoped their example would inspire more eateries to do the same.

Nearly seven months later, no other restaurants have stepped up to the plate.

“The nice thing about it is you are taking hunger away from someone you don’t even know,” said Jeff Mackie, an owner of Matarazzo’s Pizza and Subs in Minooka who acts as the coordinator for what is now known as Pizza Tuesday at St. Francis. “That’s a good thing, and it costs you almost nothing to do.”

Pizza Tuesday got started earlier this year after Giovanni Piccolino, owner of Buona Pizza in downtown Scranton, asked for assistance in serving pizzas his shop was donating to the less fortunate at St. Francis, Mackie said. That sparked a discussion about making it a regular event.

Owners of other shops were contacted, and a total of 13 committed to participating, beginning in March.

Now, on the third Tuesday of every month, each of the shops delivers at least three trays of pizza to the food kitchen on Penn Avenue, where chef Thomas “Chick” DiPietro makes the pizza the centerpiece of the dinner he serves to the 150 to 200 people who typically show up for the evening meal.

“I think a lot of people expected it would start and then fade off into the sunset, but we’ve kept it going,” Mackie said. “I make calls the day before to remind the shop owners that the next day is Pizza Tuesday, and most of them have been pretty good about it.”

Monsignor Joseph P. Kelly, St. Francis executive director, said the Pizza Tuesday initiative is the first of its kind in the 38 years the kitchen has been providing meals to the community’s homeless and disadvantaged.

It’s also been a hit with patrons, who like the variety, he said.

“Occasionally, we have made pizza when people have donated shells, but this is different,” Monsignor Kelly said. “We’ve had white pizza. We’ve had red pizza. We’ve had pizza with meat. We’ve had pizza with vegetables. It’s nice because we can put it out and they can take what they want.”

From the outset, one of the goals of Pizza Tuesday was to encourage other restaurants to join together and sponsor a meal one day a month at St. Francis, Mackie said. As the pizza shops have found, when several restaurants participate, the bottom-line expense for any one of them is almost negligible.

It is disappointing, he said, that it hasn’t happened.

“I’m not talking about steak and lobster,” Mackie said. “How about a wing night or a hot dog night? It could be a hamburger and french fries night, a fish and chips night. There are so many things you can go with that are inexpensive as far as the restaurants are concerned if multiple people chip in and do it.”

After getting a commitment from the restaurants, the biggest challenge is finding someone to coordinate the effort, he said.

“It’s really not that difficult of a task once you get the groundwork done,” Mackie said.

Gene Fitzpatrick, owner of Pepper’s Pizza & Subs in North Scranton, said he did not hesitate when his shop was asked to be part of Pizza Tuesday. With his out-of-pocket expense for three pizzas a month amounting to less than $10, he said, it was a “no-brainer.”

Fitzpatrick said he remembers the stories his father told him about being homeless in Washington, D.C., in the 1980s “and the shelters that took him in and the places he would find meals.”

“So it’s near and dear to my heart. I keep thinking there is somebody’s father down there [at St. Francis] who might be going through the same thing,” Fitzpatrick said. “Luckily, Pepper’s worked out for me, and I try to pay it back a little.”