Delivering Hope: How Toppers Pizza is Helping the Hungry with Feeding America Partnership

Toppers Pizza* has built a brand around its motto to “Never Settle,” and that same motivation has informed the brand’s philanthropic mission since opening the first restaurant 25 years ago. The brand has created a culture where improving the communities they serve isn’t just a goal, it’s a way of life.

Franchisees throughout the system team up with a variety of local charities and organizations, and give back thousands of dollars (and quite a bit of donated pizza) throughout the year. But the corporate team at Toppers leads by example in showing the brand’s genuine desire to help.

The company has established and cultivated a very powerful partnership with Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief charity.

"At the most basic level, what Toppers does is feed people in America,” said Scott Iversen, Vice President of Marketing for Toppers. “We wanted to leverage our strength in numbers to really make a difference. 75 cents on the dollar of what we raise goes back into the zip codes where it was raised. So it’s really making a difference right back in the communities where our stores are located."

Since 2011, Toppers has donated to the cause – for every dollar donated, 11 meals are provided to those in need, and according to Feeding America, the organization helps 46 million people every year who need support. Over the past four years, Toppers has collectively raised a total of $250,000 for Feeding America – the equivalent of more than 2 million meals. In October 2012, Toppers founder and president Scott Gittrich accepted the Feeding America of Eastern Wisconsin’s Hunger’s Hope Award on behalf of the brand and in December 2015, he personally donated $100,000 to the organization. This year, Toppers took Leap Day in February as a chance to give back, selling large, one-topping carryout pizzas for $4.99 and donating $2.00 of every order to Feeding America.

“Hunger in America is a problem that affects every community. We are in the pizza business, but we are also in the people business,” said Gittrich. “We help feed hungry people in our communities. Our partnership with Feeding America stemmed from our desire to partner with an organization that shared in the mission to help hunger in America. Toppers is a nationwide franchise and Feeding America has a nationwide network of member food banks. As Toppers continues to be one of the fastest growing better pizza chains in the U.S., our growth will continue to provide more meals right back into the communities we open in.”

While the brand plans to stay committed to the local initiatives that its growing system of franchisees support, the team also hopes to expand its relationship with Feeding America as more Toppers locations are opened in new markets. So far in 2016, the brand has added four new locations and signed three additional multi-unit development franchise deals that will ultimately open up 41 new locations for business across North Carolina, Colorado, Wyoming, Virginia and Maryland. As Toppers begins delivering pizza in those new areas of the country, the brand will continue supporting Feeding America.

"For us, making sure we give back in the communities we serve is really to the core of who we are. We really see what we do as serving our neighbors,” said Iversen.