PMQ Special Report
Goodfellas Staten Island Pizzeria Lends a Hand

Staten Island, NY - Goodfella's Old World Brick Oven Pizzeria, with five locations in Staten Island and Brooklyn, has personally felt the effects of the attacks on the World Trade Center (WTC). "We have employees who have lost family members and friends who worked in and around the WTC," says Goodfella's V.P. Scott Cosentino. "Last week was chaos, but this week it seems that people are starting to come out of the grieving period and a sense of camaraderie is setting in."

In the wake of the attacks, Goodfella's is lending a hand with the rescue and recovery operations. According to Scott, they have made over 5,000 meals so far to help feed rescue workers and those stranded. As a testament to the spirit of his employees, he says that even with their personal loss the employees are still coming to work. "Even though our employees have had personal losses, they are here and working extra hours to help prepare meals for those working at Ground Zero," Scott says.

As far as business goes, Scott says things are beginning to level off. He says sales went down last week because of several factors. He says that phone lines were jammed during the first part of last week. Distributors were unable to deliver supplies because many roads were closed or were opened and closed down again because of more rumors of terrorist threats and bomb scares. In order to keep their locations open, Scott said he personally went to the distributors and picked up inventory. "Today seems to be the first normal day," Scott says.

"It's seems almost unreal," Scott explains. "Before, we could walk out and look across the river and see the WTC and now...it's gone...it's not there anymore. We have locations in Brooklyn and after the WTC collapsed there was dust and papers that drifted over there. It seems unreal. But, it's good to see the people come together. We have a lot of young people working for us who have had family losses and are right back at work to help out and others are volunteering to help out with the rescue operations and doing what they can. All I can say is God bless America."

PMQ would like to send our prayers to the people of New York and other areas that have felt the loss from the attacks. We would also like to send our thanks to Goodfella's, La Nova's, Firehouse Pizza and other pizzerias in New York and around the country for lending a hand where it's needed and representing our industry so well.