Any college student will tell you: Pizza is brain food. Over several generations, late-night slices have fueled countless study sessions and rallied undergrads through midterm and final exams, research papers and high-stress group projects.
At Wichita State University, hungry Shockers get their pizza fix from Justin Neel, chef and co-owner of Sungrano Pizza and Social Tap Drinkery, located on the WSU campus (with a second store in nearby Greenwich). In turn, Neel and his partners, Luke Luttrell and David Hopkins, are making sure younger, low-income kids in Wichita get the nourishment they need to stay in school, get an education and maybe sign on as future Shocker freshmen.
Specifically, the trio started a campaign called Help Fuel Kansas (informally, Helpfuel) to provide at least one good meal every weekday to local youngsters. It’s a partnership with Support for Catholic Schools, Inc., a Catholic Diocese of Wichita project that dedicates 90% of all donations to providing free and reduced-price lunches to low-income students.
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“We’ve felt very lucky and blessed for any success, so [we] always felt it was our responsibility to give back to our community,” Neel said. “We love Wichita and always wanted to do more to help anyone we felt we could. I think, as a business owner…it’s our obligation to give back in any way we can.”
“Our love has always been to try and help the next generation of our community,” Neel added. “We know how hard some kids have it to find a good meal for lunch—quite honestly, for breakfast and dinner too, but we had our sights on helping fuel kids through the day at lunch.”
Through Help Fuel Kansas, Sungrano Pizza and Social Tap Drinkery donate 5% of all their food sales directly to lunch programs for Catholic schools in the Wichita area.
“We had been working on getting this going with any lunch service for over a year but didn’t realize that [public] school districts cannot just take our money, and if they did, it would likely not go to the food program,” Neel explained. “We were lucky enough for the Diocese to hear about us. They were trying to help local school kids, so they reached out, thinking they may have our solution. It’s been a great fit for us to help in the exact way we wanted. We wanted to celebrate our food and love of our product while giving back.”
Sungrano and Social Tap also assists local schools that offer hospitality programs. “I’ve had the opportunity to work with students and teach them how to create pizza from scratch, build commercial kitchens, and [learn] the operations of the restaurant industry,” Neel said. “It’s so fun seeing the passion of these kids who could be the next generation of pizza makers and restaurateurs.”
Sungrano Pizza offers wood-fired “Neapolitan-ish” pizzas as well as tavern-style pies baked in a gas brick oven. During the pandemic, Neel opened Sungrano Pizza as a 6,000-square-foot virtual kitchen inside Social Tap Drinkery, and the two brands merged three years later. Sungrano is a carryout-only operation, while Social Tap offers dine-in service. “So when you order from the menu in Social Tap, you are actually ordering from Sungrano,” Neel said.
Wood-fired pies include the Carne-Roar (marinara sauce, mozzarella, pepperoni, housemade sausage, smoked bacon, caramelized onions, Hatch green chiles, fresh oregano and Sungrano chile oil) and the Tucker (basil pesto, mozzarella, housemade sausage, Gorgonzola cheese, fig jam, Parmesan and rosemary). On the tavern-style side, Sungrano offers three pies: the Plain Cheese, Pepperoni and Sausage.
Social Tap, meanwhile, features 52 taps and “friendly, unpretentious tapologists” who help customers choose the right brew for the right pie. Beer and cider offerings include the Float On Blackberries from Pathlight Brewing; Fancy Livin’ from Boulevard Brewing Co.; Maine Blueberry from UFO Beer; Peach Cream Ale from Epic Brewing Co.; Blood Orange Cider from Austin Eastciders; and Compellin Melon from White Crow Cider Company.
Neel said the business will move forward and grow under just the Social Tap name. “We are looking to open another Social Tap that is focused fully on pizza within the next year and will use the WSU space to make our dough for both locations.”
Meanwhile, Help Fuel Kansas isn’t just a short-term campaign. “The 5% back [program] will run as long as [the schools] will continue to allow us to help,” he said.
