Pizza with a purpose
Local church opens pizza shop to benefit community
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ST. IGNATIUS — Bruin and Briar liked their pizza so much they barely finished the last bites of their first piece before asking for another slice. They stand with their mother Jen Largent of Ronan at the counter of Cornerstone Pizza, during the restaurant’s July 9 grand opening, waiting to eat another.
“It was good,” Bruin, 8, said of the homemade pizza. “It had a lot of cheese.”
Michelle Wood places two more slices of pepperoni on paper plates and hands them to Largent and her boys, as Adam Wood, Michelle’s husband, restocks the fresh pizza display.
The pizzas have been going quickly all day as individuals and families order slice after slice of pepperoni, Hawaiian and supreme. Pastor Lynn Lapka wants to get the word out to the community about his church’s new business venture, because its success could have the potential to positively affect the community.
“We call it pizza with a purpose,” Lapka said. “All the profits will be going back to the community.”
Lapka is the pastor of Cornerstone Faith Center, an Assemblies of God church, in St. Ignatius. He said he was sitting in his office one day when he got the idea to create a business that would provide employment, a positive place for families and give back to the community. He then turned to his congregation and asked them for their input. What came of Lapka and his congregation’s vision was a new pizza place to replace the old one that once occupied the same building in St. Ignatius.
Lapka said the church and the congregation made the initial investment in hopes the business will be able to stand on its own. All proceeds will go back to the community in some way.
Since the building was already a pizza parlor, most of the equipment to make pizza was already inside, they just had to remodel, buy ingredients and do some maintenance work.
“We believe this has been directed by God,” Lapka said and added that it is not unusual for churches to start their own businesses. But he said typically profits from their businesses go back into the church or to missionary work.
“I wanted to return it back to where I live,” he said. “It is just a different take on a business model.”
The Woods believed so much in the vision behind Cornerstone Pizza, that Adam recently quit a well-paid supervising job in Polson to become the full-time manager. Originally from Texas, the couple moved to Montana in 2009. Adam has owned several businesses that dealt with lawn and landscape, concrete, decorative and floor maintenance.
Adam and his crew of five people from their church have spent weeks coming up with pizza ingredients and combinations for their big opening. The dough is homemade and the vegetables are freshly chopped.
Candi Anderson chops green peppers in the kitchen and comments that it has been busy all day. Anderson said she used to work at Zimorino’s.
“My family is excited that there is a place to go for pizza again,” she said. “It is awesome to be a part of it,” Anderson added as she sprinkled green peppers on a pizza.
“We liked it. It had a really good flavor,” Dean and Sally Brown of Pablo said. “We will be making the trip down again to support the cause.”
“We are very pleased and so happy to see people,” Michelle said as she took orders. She said there were only a few glitches on the first day. The ingredients listed on the menu for the supreme pizza are inaccurate and their sign didn’t come in on time, so they hung a banner outside of the building instead. But the good news is that business was steady.
Michelle said several local businesses donated certificates and a bike for them to raffle off during their grand opening.
Lapka said he wants to add some couches, another television and maybe some wifi to entice teenagers to come hang out and do their homework. He also wants to host a talent night so people can read their poetry or play instruments. When they start making profits, Lapka will appoint someone to assess needs in the community, whether that would be helping a family, individual or the city, with medical bills, scholarships or projects funding. Lapka said he plans to put up a box inside the restaurant so people can write down suggestions.
“It’s all new to us,” he said. “We just want to be a blessing to our community.”
