Progress

We're committed to being as transparent as possible as we work to fulfill our mission to make damn good pizza, create great jobs, and feed neighbors in need. 

Here's the roadmap for bringing Rescue Pizza to life—and how you can help!

What's happening now

Validating the concept 

Before we can start selling Rescue Pizzas, we need to make sure we've got good product-market fit!

We're currently conducting some taste-testing batches with friends, arranging socially-distant pickups in local parks around Portland and collecting feedback via good old Google forms. Right now, we're evaluating the pizza itself, its packaging, and cooking instructions.

The earliest responses are overwhelmingly positive, with a few helpful notes. We'll continue to hone the recipe, test more batches, and collect more feedback.

If you'd like to volunteer as a taste tester, email us at hello@rescue.pizza! 

Finding commercial kitchen space 

We've been starting to navigate the labeling/licensing/permit process, and know that finding a good commercial or commissary kitchen is essential.

Here's what our future kitchen will include:

• Must-haves: oven with hood, walk-in refrigerator, ample freezer space, refrigerated make line, three-tub dishwashing station
• Nice-to-haves: dough equipment (30+ qt Hobart dough machine with dough hook and cheese grater, dough sheeter, water bucket, dough knives, plastic dough bins, bin rollers, dough docker ); rolling carts and baker's racks; general cooking equipment (pots, knives, cutting boards) 

We're looking at a few spaces around Portland, hoping to find a spot in Northeast.

If you have any hot tips, we'd love to hear them! Contact us at hello@rescue.pizza with your ideas or introductions. 

Setting up initial donation partners

We plan to donate a LOT of pizza, starting with our testing phase. Right now, we're making early connections with Portland-area non-profits that want to receive donated pizzas and serve them to their community.

If you have a favorite organization that you believe would be a good fit, let us know at hello@rescue.pizza. 

What's next

Finalize initial product

Once the testing is complete, we'll finalize a recipe and make sure we can reproduce our ideal pizzas consistently. We'll never stop perfecting Rescue Pizza, but this step will mark our first official recipe and packaging for our launch.

Sell our first batch of Rescue Pizzas

With a commercial kitchen and initial product in place, we'll be ready to contact the hungry people who have already signed up to our launch list—and sell our first batch of Rescue Pizzas. Sign up for the waiting list on our homepage!

This first batch may look more like a subscription service than a one-off pizza purchase, depending on the following...

Finalize labeling/permits/licenses

There's a lot to untangle here, especially when meat's involved. (And it will be.) We're building out our food safety plans now, but much of the licensing and permitting will naturally take place after we've found our commercial kitchen.

Thanks for following Rescue Pizza as we embark on a journey to make damn good pizza, create great jobs, and feed neighbors in need.