What You Didn't Know About Little Caesars' Mobile Kitchen
Mike and Marian Ilitch opened the first Little Caesars Pizza Treat in Garden City, Michigan in 1959, eventually growing it to one of the largest pizza chains in the country. Over the years, the Little Caesars name has come to mean a lot to the people of Michigan, and even more so to the residents of Detroit. The company moved its headquarters to Detroit in the late '80s, and Ilitch purchased, and helped grow, the Detroit Red Wings and Detroit Tigers sports franchises. Before he died in 2017, Ilitch also played a big part in helping to revitalize downtown Detroit (via Jacobs Media).
Part of the company's giving nature includes the Little Caesars Love Kitchen, which began in 1985. Two fully mobile kitchens are able to travel the country inside full-size big-rig trucks, delivering nourishment to wherever it may be needed. According to a Little Caesars press release at PR Newswire, the big-rig trucks are supported by 50,000 Little Caesars franchise owners and staff, and have already served more than 3.5 million people over the initiative's 35 years. The trucks serve their donated signature foods in needy neighborhoods, including Detroit, and also show up to assist those involved with disaster relief efforts, as well as the victims of those disasters.
What makes the Little Caesars' Love Kitchen unique
Thankfully, there are many restaurants that are able to lend a hand when the surrounding community is in need, according to Restaurant Business. The difference with Little Caesars is that the company has two big-rig trucks that can travel the U.S. and Canada 365 days of the year to go directly to the places that most need assistance.
According to Little Caesars, in addition to non-natural disaster help, the Love Kitchen was able to help victims and first responders that suffered through multiple tornadoes, hurricanes, wildfires and floods in 2020. An additional one million pizzas were provided to hospital staff and first responders working through the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020. Customers of Little Caesars stepped up in 2020, too, donating more than 250,000 pizzas to those on the front lines through the company's Pie it Forward program, says the Illitch Companies' website. Customers can also use the Little Caesars app to send a pizza to their local first responders.
If that's not a good reason to eat pizza, we don't know what is.