MILWAUKEE— A friendly baseball wager between Milwaukee and Chicago’s Catholic Archbishops turned into a meal for those in need Monday morning.
Following the Brewers’ division-clinching win, the Archdiocese of Milwaukee received dozens of Chicago-style pizzas from Lou Malanati’s as part of a good-spirited bet between Archbishop Jeffery Grob and Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago.
The terms were simple- if the Brewers won, Milwaukee would receive pizza; if the Cubs had won, Chicago would get brats. Either way, the food would go to a local program feeding those in need.
The pizzas were served at the Open Door Cafe at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in downtown Milwaukee, which provides free meals to hundreds of people each week. Lou Malnati’s Pizza based in Chicago, donated the food and delivered it to the cafe ahead of lunch service. Volunteers and community members joined in the serve the meals.
Matt Roman Lopez, Market Partner for Lou Malnati’s Wisconsin, says they are more than happy to provide to those in need.
“Lou Malnati is very dedicated to the community, and so we do tons of donations through the Hunter Task Force,” Roman Lopez says. “We just held our cancer benefit two weeks ago. So really we have our Kindness Rocks foundation, that we are a program that our team members can go into communities and give back. So it really isn’t just something that’s on a piece of paper. It’s something that’s in our hearts, and it’s core to who we are as a company.”
The Open Door Cafe serves lunch daily at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist on North Van Buren Street, offering meals and hospitality to anyone who walks through the doors.
Regardless of the Cubs losing, they still receive brats out of the kindness of the wager. Brats to Chicago from Bunzel’s Meats in West Allis was in the plan all along. The food program they’re sending it to The Mission of Our Lady of the Angels in Humboldt Park. Archbishop of Milwaukee Jeffrey Grob will travel to Chicago to deliver a hundred of Milwaukee’s Bunzel’s brats to Chicago’s Humboldt neighborhood.
“It doesn’t have to be huge things, but to do small things, to have an impact on folks in the local neighborhood,” says Grob, “It doesn’t end as a rivalry, with winner take all. Ultimately, the whole purpose of this was to bring food to the hungry, to be able to drive the brats down tomorrow and to help feed people there as well.”
