For more than a decade, our friends at Chicago’s Pizza have made supporting orphans through The Boaz Project a priority. Their generous sponsorship each year extends our services to more children in need. In the interview below, Co-Founder Ron Epple shares why the pizza chain chooses to make this investment in orphans he’ll likely never meet.
The Boaz Project (TBP): To begin, please tell us a little about Chicago’s: the number of stores, your mission and differentiators.
Ron Epple: I started Chicago’s with an older friend in 1979. There are currently 19 locations overall, all in Indiana. My partnership group owns 8 of them. We’re known for our three styles of pizza—deep dish, traditional crust, and crispy crust. Our hand-rolled breadsticks and salad bar are also well-known.
Our mission statement is: To provide an excellent dining experience in a wholesome, family environment.
The feature of our operation that distinguishes us from the competition is the owner-operator concept. Each of our locations has owner management on site. It creates consistency, stability, and quality.
TBP: Why do you choose to sponsor The Boaz Project specifically?
Ron Epple: The Bible very pointedly instructs us to look after orphans and the most neglected orphans are not in America. The Boaz Project seeks to minister in places where local help is sorely lacking. Our role in that effort is to support those who do the work in those foreign lands.
TBP: Is there anything else you’d like to mention that I’ve not addressed?
Ron Epple: One of my greatest heroes is George Muller. I have studied his life’s work with orphans in 19th century England. The thousands he rescued, and the tens of thousands of their descendants demonstrate the great increase the Lord will produce when we are willing to do the little we are able to do.
Thanks Chicago’s Pizza for supporting Boaz! We don’t live in town anymore, but we always make sure to visit Chicago’s when we are in town as our way of saying thanks for supporting an organization we love so much! (I second Mike and Robin Simpson…you can open a story in Katy, TX anytime you’d like!)
Ron,, thank you for supporting Boaz to help Orphans!! We love all that they do for God! We love your pizza too and we now live in Florida and wish you would open a store here in Lake Wales FL!!!
We love Chicago’s and the mission they support!