Grimsby caterer giving out 999 pizzas in a year to those most in need

Grimsby catering business Cooky Cooks has started a new initiative to give out 999 pizzas to those around the town who are in need.

Paul Cook, who runs the business, which does events and might be recognised mainly from Grimsby Town matches at Blundell Park, has teamed up with charities and people in need to give out free slices of pizza.

Free slices of Cheese and Tomato pizza are available at several organised events, including those with charities, to help those who are most vulnerable and in need around Grimsby and Cleethorpes, to give back to the community he grew up in.

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The initiative will run for a year until next October and he has done five events so far, including pop ups at the Oasis Community Hub, Centre4Grimsby, The Trin Centre, Harbour Place and the YouNique awards at Grimsby Town Hall for North East Lincolnshire fostering team.

He has a countdown of the number of pizzas distributed on his Facebook, having currently given out slices equivalent of 151 pizzas at the five events, including 47 for Oasis Hub, 42 for Centre4Grimsby and 26 pizzas or 156 slices at Harbour place.

Paul spoke about why he started the initiative and how he hopes it spreads joy to those who need it.

He said “I want to give people a little bit of happiness for a couple hours and try to make people smile with pizza. I want to help charitable organisations or people doing good for the community in which I live. I want to help everyone but mainly around Grimsby and Cleethorpes as I wanted it to be for our community.

“With what is going on in the world, lots of people are struggling, so I do events where we will give away slices to anyone, but I also like to try and work with charities. Recently we did one at the Town Hall which celebrated children that were in foster care and all the good things they have done, they've come from a difficult start in life so it's just nice to help.”

He does the food prep, cooks the pizzas and fully funds all of the project on his own, while some help him hand the pizza out and he has had some donations to his initiative to help with the high cost of cheese.

He spoke on the incredible groups of people he has met doing this project and how he’s learning more about his beloved town and its community.

He said: “I’m part of a wider group as a caterer. The company that makes my pizza ovens has an international group of 160 people who use their ovens and a few of them from around the world have started these initiatives. I was inspired by that and thought I could do that around here and in doing so, I’ve met some incredible local people.

“I thought I was quite in the know coming from the area, but there's people I've met that are absolute heroes. Meeting the volunteers and people that run the centres, I've been gobsmacked with the superstars that live in the area, the experience has been brilliant and I've met some awesome people.“

His original idea was to give away full pizzas, however due to the demand and Paul making them all on his own, he made the decision to make bigger pizzas and give away slices.

He said: “For the first event at The Oasis Hub there were around 180 people waiting, with just me working, so it was difficult to cook full pizzas. Sometimes a whole pizza is a lot for one person, so we decided we could reach more people and spread it further by giving away slices, also it reduces waste.”

He will be carrying on the 999PizzaProject until October 2025 and is planning to do his next two events in January, as he appreciates it is a tough month for many.

Paul welcomes any charities to get in contact with him about taking part in the project and more information can be found on his Facebook page here.