Think of it like a pizza. A delicious, hand-crafted pizza from Rocco’s Pizzeria in Steinbach.
The popular restaurant relies on customers to buy and enjoy their tasty product. Because those customers keep coming back, the restaurant is able to support them and the broader community through its Take-And-Bake fundraisers. It’s a cyclical kind of support.
“If it wasn’t for our storefront restaurant, we wouldn’t be able to do the fundraisers; and we can’t do the storefront restaurant without the support of the community,” says Damian Penner, who owns and operates Rocco’s Pizzeria with his wife Jodi. “So it’s kind of a full circle of us being able to show our appreciation to the community for supporting us, and then going back out into the community with the fundraisers.”
Since 2020, when it launched the Take-And-Bake initiative, Rocco’s has helped raise more than half a million dollars for local groups, clubs and charitable organizations. The fundraisers have been so successful that the restaurant has had to expand on four separate occasions to accommodate demand.
“It kept getting busier and busier and we had to take on more space,” Penner recalls. “Our landlord was very gracious, and he said he’d love to be able to make something work.”
And the work, for Rocco’s, hasn’t stopped.
Penner cites the straightforward nature of the Take-And-Bake as one of the reasons for its popularity. While researching how his business might adopt a fundraising endeavour, time and again he found that organizations were desperate for something uncomplicated and not requiring the recruitment of teams of volunteers.
“We found a unique way to make fundraisers super easy,” Penner explains. “We get in touch with the organizers and prepare a sales sheet for them to hand out. Then we do everything else.”
Rocco’s collects the sales sheets, prepares the orders and brings the pizzas to the organizers, who can then deliver them to their supporters. It’s mostly hands-off for the organization itself, which gets to keep $5 from each pizza sold.
The other reason the Take-And-Bake fundraisers have become so well-known is, well, the product raising the funds.
“The pizzas are exactly what you’d be getting in the restaurant,” says Penner. “There’s the same amount of toppings and the exact same ingredients. The only difference is it isn’t baked yet.”
Supporters who purchase the pizzas can bake them whenever they want – either in the oven or, as Penner points out, on the BBQ or in the smoker. The final step is easy: enjoying a Canadian, Hawaiian, Rocco’s or any of the business’s other amazing pizzas.
“This is a way for us to give back to the community,” Penner says. “It’s great being a business owner and giving back through donations and things like that, but we wanted to really get the community involved in helping support organizations and local groups.”
Anyone interested in doing a Rocco’s Pizzeria’s Take-And-Bake fundraiser can call the restaurant at (204) 326-6496 or email roccosfundraisers@gmail.com. Additional information is also available on their website. Rocco’s Pizzeria is located at 23 Brandt St in Steinbach.