Pizza, kindness tossed together
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ST. IGNATIUS – The Cornerstone Pizza shop opened two years ago and people are still asking for a gorilla.
“It’s actually the Goliath. It’s a meat pizza but people call in and can’t remember what we call it. They ask for the Godzilla, the gorilla or the gargantuan. We know what they mean,” manager Craig Waldron said.
Waldron’s favorite pizza on the menu is the Takedown.
“It’s the Goliath plus the King David.”
The pizza shop is still playing with words to come up with a better name for the bacon cheeseburger pizza.
“We were thinking about doing something with the pigs and the demons story from the bible, but we are still working on that one,” he said.
The names on the menu aren’t the only things that are out of the ordinary about the pizza shop.
“We don’t make any profits. We make as much money as we can to give back as much as we can. It’s pizza with a purpose. The purpose is to give back to the community.
“That is what Jesus taught: if you have two and someone else has none, then you give them one. It’s about sharing what you have to help others that don’t have. Impacting people is important to me. It’s the reason I am even around: to help make peoples’ lives better,” Waldron said.
Cornerstone Pizza is affiliated with the Cornerstone Faith Center, an Assemblies of God Church in St. Ignatius.
“The pizza place is an extension of who we are at the church and what we want to do for the community,” Waldron said.
The profits are used for things like feeding people doing volunteer work, supporting youth and helping people in need.
“We helped feed the search and rescue team at two in the morning,” he said. “They came to the community’s rescue, so we came to theirs with food.”
Many people support the idea of giving back.
“Last year we sold two miles worth of pizzas. That was just the large takeout pizzas. That is a lot of support from the community. This doesn’t happen without the community and the team.”
The team is made up of employees and volunteers.
“We have a great crew,” Waldron said. “If you push the vision, people that have that same heart will gravitate towards it.”
Rose Mansell, team leader and master of the sauce swirl, takes time to make each pizza “a work of art,” but the customers are her main focus.
“Some people need someone to talk to when they come in. I ask ‘how’s your day?’ Sometimes that’s all it takes to make someone’s day better. And you can help some people just by making the pizza so they don’t have to cook,” she said.
“It’s not just the food. It’s about caring about people.”
