They’ve been friends for years, and now that they’re also business neighbors, Soung Wiser, who owns The Little Grand, and Robb Duncan, who owns Dolcezza, had been trying to figure out how to team up for a promotion together. After all, it’s hard to argue against pizza and ice cream.
But the world turning upside down in D.C. initially made it hard, and then made it easy.
“Just everything that’s going on right now in this city in particular, and then specifically, with the cutting of SNAP and all that,” Duncan said. “We were like, ‘You know what? Let’s do this, and let’s give all the proceeds to the Capital Area Food Bank.’”
So that’s what they’re doing.
“The deal is $16 for a ticket, you get a slice of square pizza, which is our signature sourdough Sicilian-ish pizza,” Wiser said. “And then you also get a soft serve, dulce de leche, chocolate dipped by Dolcezza, which is fantastic.
“All the ticket sales are going to be going to … the Capital Area Food Bank.”
In fact, the restaurants aren’t keeping a single penny from this promotion. And according to a spokesperson for the food bank, the help is desperately needed. Calls to the Capital Area Food Bank’s Hunger Lifeline, for those in need of help finding emergency food, have tripled in the past few weeks during the government shutdown.
“The staff who answer it have said it’s literally ringing off the hook,” the food bank’s Hilary Salmon said in an email to WTOP.
The food bank is gearing up to provide a million additional meals this month beyond what it normally distributes, which is a 20% to 25% increase for the month of November, she said.
Wiser said her sister’s own experience having needed SNAP benefits once upon a time convinced her how significant the program is.
“Having an opportunity to help people in that way strikes a chord,” she said.
“It makes your community stronger,” Duncan said. “I mean, we’re strong because the local D.C. community supports us and come and eat pizza and soft serve and gelato. So we see that and benefit and exist because of that.”
The promotion runs on Sunday and Monday because some of the items being sold require special preparation. The pizza slices in particular are back by popular demand just for this promotion. And tickets have been selling fast.
“We’ve gotten a tremendous turnout and level of interest from the community,” Wiser said. “And we’ve seen people who are really excited about the fact that they can support us as businesses, because they love our products, but also be able to help and contribute.”
She called it a double whammy of what feels good. And while you normally have to eat your dinner before you get dessert, in this case they’ll let it slide.
“We won’t judge for eating dessert first. So you can do pizza, then soft serve or soft serve and then pizza, whatever your style,” Duncan said. “It just depends on the mood.”
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