The last bite of Myles pizza has not yet been enjoyed. One Myles, half-baked, 12 inch meat lovers pizza sits in a freezer, sealed in Saran wrap, waiting for one lucky person to enjoy it.
That person will be the highest bidder when the pizza goes to online auction Friday.
Father Jason Kahle of Saint Thomas More University Parish said the pizza will be up for bids on www.donroseauctions.hibid.com from Friday at 10 a.m. to Monday, Oct. 17 at 7 p.m. The proceeds will be donated to the St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry at St. Thomas More per the request of Chip and Bridgette Myles.
The Myles are parishioners of St. Toms, family friend Tim Evans said.
The decision to auction off the pizza to give back to the community came “after seeing so many people from basically all over the United States coming to celebrate with Chip Myles and his family, and just the love and memories of that place,” Evans said.
With customers waiting up to eight hours in line for one last Myles pizza, Evans thought of auctioning off a pizza for the proceeds to be given to people who can’t afford pizza.
“I’ve seen [Chip] help the community so much through the years… Just giving and giving and giving,” Evans said.
St. Vincent de Paul Society President Mary Jane Fulcher said the food pantry has been in operation more than 20 years, but the services started long before.
“The pantry just developed slowly,” Fulcher said.
Around 40 years ago, started bringing food to the office just in case someone who was hungry showed up.
“The need got greater and we just decided we needed to more,” Fulcher said.
The St. Vincent de Paul Society started asking for food donations from parishioners and eventually the pantry opened.
Now there are 15 St. Tom’s parishioners working at the food pantry and eight are students. People from anywhere, with no limits on where one must live, can go to the pantry and collect two bags of food a month. The pantry is open every Tuesday and Thursday from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 1 to 4 p.m.
In the past year, it has served 4,325 people in 1,577 households, and of those, 2,401 have been children.
While about three bushel baskets of food are donated by each weekend, the pantry also purchases truckloads of food from Toledo. There is an annual collection taken up during one St. Tom’s mass and random donations throughout the year. Proceeds from the church’s Spring Formal also often get donated.
