Written by Zachery Decker
A local restaurant is getting involved with the community by hosting an event to benefit one of Searcy’s outreach programs.Papa John’s Pizza has organized a citywide Can-a-thon in November that will provide canned goods to His House, a benevolence ministry of College Church of Christ.Papa John’s is offering discounts on pizzas purchased when canned items are donated. For every can donated, the customer will receive a $1 discount, up to a $2 discount per $10 purchase. Papa John’s representatives said this is a small way of saying, “thank you,” and “we care.”Papa John’s owners Michael Hensley and Brant Barnes want citizens of Searcy to associate its pizza with a commitment to service and community development.They have hired Eric Young, Brandon Harriman, Tiffany Jones, and Stephan Daley as the Papa John’s-Harding University Marketing Team to assist in accomplishing this task. Together, the group of students has worked to organize the drive and spread the word. “We want to put not just a face to Papa John’s, but a personality,” Harriman said.”People see Papa John’s in the community,” added Young. “It’s not just someone you get your pizza from. It’s deeper than the pizza. It goes far along further than the pizza for sure.”The team said Papa John’s is encouraging customers to bring extra cans to donate. The goal is to feed as many mouths as possible through His House. “We don’t want to set a limit because we don’t want to limit ourselves,” Harriman said. “We’d like to think that we’d blow that limit away. We’re just looking to feed as many people as we can, and just really help out the community as much as possible.”The Papa John’s-Harding University Marketing Team is really pushing for the community to get involved with helping each other.”We’re not doing this as a marketing scheme,” Harriman said. “First and foremost it is to feed mouths through His House.”So far, the Can-a-thon has been a success. People from the community have already started bringing cans to donate. Since Thursday, Nov. 18, more than 300 cans have been collected”Its definitely headed in the right direction,” Young said.Harriman and Young stressed that Papa John’s is not hosting this event as a tactic for increasing sales revenue or advertising the company name.”Those things may come as a side effect, but are not the primary goal,” Young said. The Papa Johns-Harding University marketing team plans to end the Can-a-thon at the close of November, but depending on its success, it may extend into early December.
