BRPROUD.COM  |  

BATON ROUGE, La. (LOCAL 33) (FOX 44) – Hundreds of mothers in the Baton Rouge area are going to receive a special gift thanks to Rotolo’s and students at St. Jude, St. Aloysius and Our Lady of Mercy.

Rotolo’s ninth annual Homegrown Love program is a culmination of the pizzeria’s Earth Day celebration that started in April.

For Earth Day Rotolo’s asked customers to trade their Rotolo cups for free pizza.

According to Rotolo’s, the collected cups were repurposed for donation this month.

Rotolo’s said the cups were donated at St. Jude on Monday, May 7 and will be donated at St. Aloysius on Wednesday, May 9, and Our Lady of Mercy on Thursday, May 10.

Rotolo’s said along with the repurposed cups, the restaurant “is giving soil, tomato plants and the tools needed to create a unique Mother’s Day gift experience.”

The goal of this program is for local third and fourth grade students to learn about healthy eating and recycling through the planting of tomato plants in recycled cups.

Mitch Rotolo, Founder & CEO of Rotolo’s Pizzeria said, “we always look forward to hosting the Homegrown Love program because it gives us the opportunity to teach children in our community the importance of recycling and living a healthy lifestyle, while also putting smiles on their faces (and ours). The program is strategically planned around recycling for Earth Day and creating an environmentally friendly gift for Mother’s Day. Together, family members can nurture the plant, watch it grow and, ultimately, enjoy the tomatoes the plant produces.”