You Spread The Word, Now See What Happened To This Pizzeria That Was Feeding The Homeless

Nov 13, 2018

Philadelphia simultaneously holds the mantle of being both "the City of Brotherly Love" while also being the poorest metropolitan city in the United States with 185,000 people being reported as living with revenues that are half the rate of the federal poverty line in 2015. This means that homelessness is a major issue in the city and the local government's resources are not equipped to handle the problem.

This is where Rosa's Fresh Pizza, a local New York style pizzeria, comes in to tackle the problem in their own way and has become a local legend in the area as a result.

It all started for Rosa's when a customer had prepaid a $1 slice of pizza with the intention of giving to the next homeless person that entered the store, apparently inspired by a coffee house that encouraged something similar.

The purchase was marked by a sticky note from Mason Whartman, a former Wall Street administrator who quit his job to run a pizzeria, with the intention of using it to give a homeless person a free slice of pizza.

Local word of mouth spread and people began to hand the business $1 donations for the purpose of giving their slices to homeless people in the area.

Rosa's walls are now covered in sticky notes emphasizing "paying it forward" and prepaid slices make up a tenth of their business.

The homeless being helped by the program have even noted that the pizza slices kept them from committing petty crimes to acquire their own food.

The video also notes a homeless person who had been utilizing the program who eventually got a job and began prepaying his own pizza slices for use in the program.

Since then, the story has gone viral. The pizzeria is now giving away slices of pizza to the homeless at a rate of up to 100 per day. Rosa's has begun to hire new people to deal with the demand and is getting many of their new employees from agencies that specifically help the homeless with employment opportunities.

The restaurant is also now selling t-shirts with designs created by the homeless. Half of those shirt sales goes right back into paying for the pizza slices to the homeless, which now covers about a tenth of the money used for the pizza donations.

The prepaid pizza drive taken by Rosa's Fresh Pizza has led to a positive impact on their community and has paid off in dividends as business has boomed.

Do you know of any businesses in your community that might be encouraged to take a similar path to combat hunger in your city? Let us know in the comments! Continue to spread the word, it truly can make a difference.