It’s National Pizza Day, but did you know…

Today is National Pizza Day. It’s National Bagel Day, too, but we’re going to talk pizza.

Knowing firsthand how we make a quite tasty pepperoni in the Memorial Hospital cafeteria, we requested some photos. Diana Custer, Memorial Director of Operations, and Gail Weismann, Manager of Nutritional Services, sent us a few pictures that made our mouths water.

At the same time, we learned something new. 

Maybe it will be new to you, too. Did you know…

Memorial Hospital offers every mom who is having a baby in our Mother-Baby Unit, and her family, a free “celebratory” pizza to enjoy during her stay in the hospital or at discharge.

Here’s what we learned from Patty DeStefano, director of the Mother-Baby Unit, who helped create the offer in 2015.

“We tried to come up with something fun for our families. So many have small children who come to visit,” Patty said.

Fred Girard, Director of Nutritional Services at the time, came up with the coupon after Gail and Patty decided to partner on the special offering three years ago.

“I round the day after delivery with every patient and give them their coupon,” Patty said. “I tell them to share the pizza with the kids, family or their visitors. Or we tell them if they don’t use the coupon in the hospital to order it upon discharge and they’ll have something to snack on when they go home. It’s a meal dad doesn’t have to worry about cooking.”

What’s fantastic is how nearly 100 percent of our moms take us up on this special treat.

Memorial delivers about 2,500 babies every year, so that’s about 2,500 pizzas that are given to our moms. Thanks to both the Nutritional Services and MBU teams for making this happen. We appreciate you!