Pizzeria to donate to cancer research

Bill San Antonio

Joseph Vetrano and Michael Tenedorio, the owners of the Roslyn Heights-based Skinny Pizza, wanted to find a way to give back to the community.

While recently flipping through the trade publication Pizza Today, Vetrano learned of A Slice of Hope, which annually raises funds for breast cancer research through pizza sales and live music for the 501(C)(3) organization eyeBlink. 

Since October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month and National Pizza Month, Vetrano and Tenedorio decided to register Skinny Pizza’s locations in Roslyn Heights at 211 Mineola Ave. and the Roosevelt Field Mall to donate 50 percent of its pizza sales on Oct. 11 to the Karen Mullen Breast Cancer Foundation. 

“With this, you’re just buying pizza,” Vetrano said. “We’re not asking you for more money. We just ask you come in and enjoy a slice of pizza.”

Last year, more than 200 pizzerias – including 12 from New York – raised $142,000 for the Karen Mullen Breast Cancer Foundation, according to the foundation’s Web site. 

Vetrano said he admires the work the Karen Mullen Breast Cancer Foundation does because it donates 100 percent of A Slice of Hope proceeds toward breast cancer research, adding he’d like to continue participating in future years as Skinny Pizza expands. 

In March, Skinny Pizza will open its third location at Brookfield Place, formerly known as the World Financial Center in lower Manhattan, Vetrano said.

“The bottom line is it’s National Breast Cancer [Awareness] Month, it’s National Pizza Month, and it’s not costing you anything to give back,” Tenedorio said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, breast cancer is the most common cancer among American women aside from skin cancer.

In 2009, the latest year for which statistics are available, 211,731 women in the United States were diagnosed with breast cancer and 40,676 died from the disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control. 

“Hopefully someday they find the cure, that’s the idea,” Tenedorio said. “We are always looking to give back to something, but you want it to be meaningful.”

“Everybody knows somebody who’s affected by it,” Vetrano added. 

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