Port Elgin’s Pizza Hut has started a movement of ‘pay it forward’ of its ‘Everyone Eats’ campaign.
For the past month, owner Hardik Soni has offered personal pizzas to those in need.
The idea began when he saw people ‘dumpster diving’ in a nearby dumpster bin looking for food and he couldn’t sleep for several nights afterward.
During Covid, he began the ‘Everyone Eats’ program and seeing the homeless and unemployed problem following Covid, he again began the program.
Each day, at each of his eight locations, staff give away some 15 to 30 pizzas a day. The goal is to give away up to 80 pizzas a day at each store as long as he is able. Paying customers can also ‘pay it forward’ by pre-purchasing pizzas for those in need.
While it may cost Soni money, he says that, since immigrating from India, it is an opportunity to give back to the communities where he has Pizza Hut businesses.
“We are just the mediators when it comes to helping those in need of food,” says Port Elgin’s Pizza Hut manager, Sarbjeet Kaur. “The response has been incredible both by those who pay it forward and those who come in needing food.”
They have also worked with the local Food Bank asking that it encourage its clients to come and pick up a free pizza.
The free-pizza campaign was to run through February and March, difficult months of the year for many, but according to Soni, it will continue as long as the need is there and as long as customers help by paying it forward through donations at local locations.
