{"id":229306,"date":"2019-09-03T20:41:09","date_gmt":"2019-09-04T00:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=229306"},"modified":"2019-09-03T20:41:09","modified_gmt":"2019-09-04T00:41:09","slug":"manitoba-immigrants-curbing-hunger-one-pizza-slice-at-a-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/09\/03\/manitoba-immigrants-curbing-hunger-one-pizza-slice-at-a-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Manitoba immigrants curbing hunger one pizza slice at a time"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Under the \u201cPay It Forward Pizza Program,\u201d customers have the option of donating $1 towards a free slice of pizza or samosa for someone else. (File Photo<\/a>: Shivani Vikas Sanger\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Each sticky note on the wall of SFC Pizzeria in Winnipeg, Manitoba, symbolizes a meal for someone in need.<\/span><\/p>\n

Vikas Sanger and Shivani Sanger are immigrants from New Delhi, India. Shivani works as a dental hygienist and Vikas owns the restaurant where he got the idea for the \u201cPay It Forward Pizza Program.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vikas came to Winnipeg in 2010 as an\u00a0international student<\/a>\u00a0at the University of Manitoba, where he studied business. He got his permanent residence in 2015 after receiving a provincial nomination through the\u00a0Skilled Worker in Manitoba Stream<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In 2016 he bought a gas station and expanded the business to a laundromat, and eventually SFC Pizzeria.<\/p>\n

Under the \u201cPay It Forward Pizza Program,\u201d customers have the option of donating $1 towards a free slice of pizza or samosa for someone else. They are then given a sticky note, where they write a few kind words before placing it on the wall. People who don\u2019t have money can use one of these notes to pay for their food.<\/p>\n

Vikas told CIC News that the idea came to him just two days after opening the business when someone came in asking for a slice of pizza, but didn\u2019t have $1 to pay him.<\/p>\n

He let the man have the pizza for free.<\/p>\n

\u201cI opened the restaurant two days ago,\u201d he said. \u201cI cannot afford to give a slice to everybody, but I cannot deny them, as per my culture\u2014 in my culture you don\u2019t deny food or water to anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

After talking to Shivani about what happened they came up with a \u201cbuy a slice, give a slice\u201d policy. Then, in June 2019, they launched the \u201cPay It Forward Pizza Program.\u201d<\/p>\n

At first, they put a sign on the wall where the sticky notes would go that read \u201cKindness Matters\u201d in big letters on the top and \u201cPay It Forward\u201d on the bottom. They would also promote the idea whenever someone came in to order, asking if they would like to make a donation.<\/p>\n

Their wall became decorated with colourful sticky notes bearing messages, or as Vikas calls them, \u201cblessings,\u201d such as \u201cEnjoy the pizza;\u201d and \u201cHope you have a beautiful day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though Vikas said the number of donations has slowed down in the past few weeks, they are still feeding around 20 to 25 people per day.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels so good, you know, when you see people\u2026 giving their blessings,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Vikas said he will continue the buy-one-give-one operation for as long as he is running a business.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to eliminate hunger around the city \u2014 around Canada,\u201d he said, \u201cAnyone who can do it, they should try to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a9 2019 CIC News All Rights Reserved<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Each sticky note on the wall of SFC Pizzeria in Winnipeg, Manitoba, symbolizes a meal for someone in need. Vikas …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":229315,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-229306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-immigration","mauthors-shelby-thevenot","mauthors-cic-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229306"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":229316,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229306\/revisions\/229316"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}