Food & Beverage

Chicago pizzeria owner pumps pies, sodas to front-line workers

Pie-eyed Pizzeria and Jones Soda deliver the goods to Chicago's St. Anthony Hospital. (photo provided)

July 24, 2020

Although the pandemic has only been a fact of life in the U.S. since March, to many, it feels like years. In fact, even the generous offers of restaurant food to frontline workers that have been so prominent since April have slowed in some places as people have gotten used to the so-called "new normal" and donations have dried up.

Such has been the case around parts of Chicago, according to Maisie Antoniello, vice president of Marketing at Jones Soda, which has been helping with a local pizzeria's efforts to provide food donations to frontline workers.

To do his part, Evan Muellner, owner of the single location — Pie-Eyed Pizzeria — launched the Pie-eyed Pizza Break initiative. Each week, he cold-calls local organizations that employ frontline workers and offers to organize a "pizza break," Antoniello told Pizza Marketplace. Jones Soda and Muellner have organized eight pizza breaks donating more than 60 pizzas and about 30 cases of soda to local hospitals and firehouses.