EDITOR’S NOTE: Happy National Pizza Month! This October, we are celebrating America’s favorite food and the people who make it by featuring pizzerias that give back to their communities. To have your pizzeria included, email [email protected] and [email protected] with the subject line “Pizzeria Community Impact.”
Heavenly Pizza
Findlay, Ohio
heavenlypizzafindlay.com
Heavenly Pizza seeks “to be the most impactful business” in the community of Findlay, Ohio. The business partners with several nonprofit groups and outreach services targeting food insecurity, homelessness and mental health issues.
The pizzeria also sponsors Heavenly Haircuts by partnering with Bless Up and Bloom, a local nonprofit group that aims to boost self-confidence, employability and overall wellness in the community by providing hygiene and wellness products. This year, the Heavenly Haircuts program provided 215 free haircuts to children before the school year began.
“We have done this for four years now, and it gets better every year,” says Josh Elchert, president of Heavenly Pizza. “We make it an event for the kids. … We give free pizza by the slice, Kona Ice donates free Kona to the kids, and we have a bounce house.”
Elchert says Heavenly Haircuts is “a great way to make these kids feel loved and supported by their community and feel confident to start the school year.”
Heavenly Pizza also has operated a “pay-it-forward” program, where customers would donate $1, which translated into a free meal for a child, “no questions asked.” Elchert says the meal included a slice of pizza, a bottle of water and a bakery treat donated by a local nursing home.
“We even had a local church bring in fruit for the kids to have after school,” Elchert says, adding, “The community supported the program in a huge way.”
To donate to the Heavenly Pizza Legacy Foundation, which helps fight food insecurity, scan the QR code.
