Edmonton pizza shop giving back to community for Thanksgiving

The owner estimates with the amount of cancelled food his shop has each day, he could donate more than 20 pizzas a week, which led the store to contact the non-profit.

A pizza shop in northwest Edmonton has found a way to give back while making sure none of its fresh food goes to waste. The initiative started this weekend, but the giving will last all year long.

Azhar Khan takes his business name — All Hours Pizza and Donair — literally, taking orders until 4 a.m., seven days a week. But early morning deliveries don’t always go as planned.

“Usually, late at night after 2 a.m. when people had a little too much alcohol or something, you go to the door (and) they don’t open, so we have a lot of food that comes back to us,” he said.

Instead of throwing the fresh pizzas away, in the spirit of giving, Khan came up with a solution: donating the forgotten orders to Hope Mission.

“We just starting it this Thanksgiving weekend and we’re going to implement it for the whole year and just continue on,” he said. “If people want to call in and they need help, they need a slice or whatever you need, just help out.”

Hope Mission provides over 1,000 meals a day and told Global News that this past summer, the need increased.

“We just have more people experiencing homelessness in our city right now, so that’s a big part of the challenge that we face. There’s a lot of people struggling right now,” said Tim Pasma, senior manager of homeless programs at Hope Mission.

Khan said he wants to help. He estimates with the amount of cancelled food his shop has each day, he could donate more than 20 pizzas a week, which led the store to contact the non-profit.