Photo courtesy of Riverwest Pizza
Andrea Haas and Todd Fugh, owners of Riverwest Pizza, 932 E. Wright St., are no strangers to serving the community. In the past, they’ve done numerous fundraisers for cancer awareness for Children’s Hospital. Today, their takeout orders are all discounted because they acknowledge the financial struggle of getting by during the pandemic. On their social media, they use the hashtag #weareallinthistogether. “And that's a fact,” Haas says. “We really are. And Milwaukee is a great city. And for all the negative stuff that we hear, there are so many great people in this city that really work hard to try and make a difference.”
Back in October, Haas and Fugh spoke about what they could do to serve complimentary dinners to the neighborhood for Thanksgiving. “We said we would, financially, during the pandemic, be able to do about 100 (meals),” Haas says.
Since then, people within the community got wind of the idea and donated so Riverwest could serve more meals. Now, 100 has risen to 500. “We're super overwhelmed and grateful and so appreciative of this opportunity to help people who not only could just really need a meal, but people that can't travel because of COVID and really don't have any place to go because they can't see some of their family,” Haas says.
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The meals will include turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, mac and cheese, greens and cornbread. Riverwest Pizza’s staff will volunteer their time to make and serve the meals curbside on Thanksgiving. “The amount of just trust and loyalty and hard work and just pure dedication, it's overwhelming,” Haas says of her staff. “I mean, we are probably two of the luckiest people to have the team that we have.”
Eight local companies such as Master Lock, Fairway Independent Mortgage and Root River Realty have donated. As the word’s gotten out about Riverwest’s plans, more and more people have asked if they can help. Due to the small kitchen size, Haas has had to stop the number of meals at 500. “The beauty of this, though, is that there are still so many people reaching out that want to be a part of it, whether in some type of a volunteer way or they want to donate either more meals or financially donate,” Haas explains. “And at this point, what we've done is we've asked people we thank people profusely, but we've asked people to please donate to the River West Food Pantry.”
Haas encourages everyone who wants a meal to stop by. Riverwest Pizza will serve meals starting at 11 a.m. until they run out. “There are no restrictions to people wanting to come and partake in this,” Haas says. “You don't have to have a major life crisis. If we can just make a few people smile on Thanksgiving, that is the completion of the mission.”
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