Nearly 100 million viewers worldwide will watch the Super Bowl while snacking on foods such as chips and pizza. Thanks to the efforts of Air Force Master Sgt. (ret.) Mark Evans of Elk Grove, Ill., tens of thousands of deployed personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan will be eating fresh, hot pizza during this year’s big game.
The program, ‘‘Pizza 4 Patriots,” began in 2008 while Mr. Evans and his 15-year-old son, Kent, were watching TV.
‘‘My son and I were having a ‘man’s night’ – eating some pizza,” said Mr. Evans. ‘‘They were talking about the war on TV. [Kent] asked me about the food over there and I told him, ‘They do their best, but it’s not like home cooking. They don’t have pizza over there.’ Then he asked if we could get some over there.”
Over the next month, Mr. Evans contacted numerous food and shipping companies, as well as military officials in Iraq. A Chicago pizzeria called ‘‘Lou Malnati’s” offered to sell their deep-dish pies below cost while shipping giant DHL volunteered to fly the frozen pies to southwest Asia for free.
Originally, the Evans family hoped to send 300 pizzas over for July 4, 2008, but ‘‘donation fever” hit a peak, and enough money was raised to send 2,000 pies to the troops.
The non-profit venture was a big success, and it led to a follow-up effort for the 2009 Super Bowl. Gail, Mr. Evans’ wife, said, ‘‘We are sending a Super Bowl party ... it’s not just pizza; we are sending a whole party.” As game day arrived, so did 2,000 deep-dish pizzas.
Buoyed by their growing success, the Evans’ family partnered up with Uno Pizza for a July 4, 2009, overseas bash labeled the ‘‘World’s Largest Pizza Party” (according to the Guinness Book of Records). ‘‘Operation Pizza Surge” consisted of a mind-blowing 28,000 deep-dish delights and 8,000 cases of beverages.
The pizzas were transported by truck from Massachusetts to John F. Kennedy Airport, N.Y. As 71,000 pounds of Uno pizza and dry ice were loaded onto a 747 DHL cargo plane, a number of female USO representatives sang to entertain the volunteers. The plane then took off for Iraq and Afghanistan, where 100,000 troops at nine different bases happily munched and drank.
‘‘It was absolutely wonderful to get a little taste of home on this holiday. What you are doing is a great thing!” wrote Army Capts. Michael Stephens and Chris Rizzo, and Warrant Officer One Seth Watson.
This Super Bowl weekend, the Original Gino’s East of Chicago and Edwardo’s Natural Pizza, as well as America’s Dairy Farmers will team up to provide 10,000 pizzas, 7,000 bottles of protein-rich Honey Milk and 500 footballs to deployed personnel. In addition, numerous volunteers will hand out pizzas locally at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the Audie Murphy Veterans Memorial Hospital and veteran’s hospitals around the country.
In reflecting on how his ongoing mission helps others, Mr. Evans simply said, ‘‘I hope this brings joy to them,” whereas his son Kent said, ‘‘One person can do a lot if they have a mindset to do it.”
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