Food truck with a conscience ‘highly recommended’ at Italian food awards
Tiny Idea, a non-profit food truck that donates its award-winning pizza to people in need in Pontefract, was highly recommended in two award categories at the Italian Awards.
Founded by Steve Wright and his wife, Sheree, in 2019, Tiny Idea operates out of a converted caravan from 1958 and sells some of the best Neapolitan pizzas that the UK has to offer.
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Hide AdThe business was set up as a non-profit organisation to engage with people who are homeless or are in food poverty.
People who can afford to pay for the pizzas can do so and those who need feeding for free are able to get some quality nosh in a “dignified” way, without having to stand in a church hall waiting for bread and a tin of beans.
Steve and his wife employ another full time member of staff who works in the kitchen and a student who does a few shifts a week at their popup kitchen in Wakefield, as well as having a couple volunteer drivers helping out.
Before launching the business, Steve worked as a teacher at a pupil referral unit (PRU) and often saw parents struggling.
So he set up the food truck as a non-profit in response.
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Hide AdHe donates all his unused ingredients to Wakefield Street Kitchen every week, where volunteers make meals for over 500 people each Wednesday.
The food truck won the Best Takeaway of the Year at the Best in Yorkshire Awards last year, followed by a nomination for the Best Looking Food Truck in the UK by the British Street Food Awards.
At the sixth annual Italian Awards held in the Hilton Deansgate in Manchester on Sunday, Tiny Idea came in second place in the Best Pizza category and was ‘highly recommended’ in the Outstanding Achievement category.
The social enterprise was up against 40,000 other Italian restaurants across the country.
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Hide AdSteve said: “We were up against 40,000 other restaurants and came out as highly recommended, which was mint.
“It was out of this world to just have been nominated - a guy who is not even a trained chef and was a teacher.
“I started off as a magician and went off to teach children who were let down by the education system, to buying a pizza oven and thinking 'let's do something’.
“Standing with all the other Italian restaurants, Valentino’s with 50-odd seats, other restaurants with trained chefs, and I’m there with a 70-year-old caravan and do speak a lick of Italian, to
be recognised was fantastic.
“We were also given an award for Outstanding Achievement for our social goals and ethos. hope it will act as a springboard and we can do more things to help others.”