Man makes sure overseas troops are well fed for Super Bowl

Elk Grove Village resident Mark Evans on Friday afternoon sent 2,000 Lou Malnati's deep dish pizzas and more than 6,000 bottles of Schlitz beer to U.S troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Of course, he had a lot of help from businesses like freight carrier DHL, Pabst Brewing Co. and Lou Malnati's Pizza, which donated much of the food and labor.

Pizzas 4 Patriots, headed by Evans, sent pizzas and beer for the upcoming Super Bowl game. Chicago Bears players helped load the trucks.

The pizzas are expected to feed about 6,000 soldiers, Evans said.

"They need to know we still care about them," Evans said as he and fellow volunteers loaded the food on DHL trucks at Malnati's Northbrook warehouse. "It's tough for them and a lot of times they have to wonder do we still care about them."

It's all part of a snowballing program that grew out of a conversation Evans had with his son that led him to form Pizzas 4 Patriots last summer. That last-minute effort got a great response and the group was able to deliver about 2,000 pizzas to the Middle East on July 4.

Evans and his group had wanted to send pizzas for Veteran's Day, but that deal didn't work out, he said. But then Mark's wife, Gail, suggested sending the pizzas over for the Super Bowl.

"We are sending a Super Bowl party," Gail Evans said. "It's not just pizza; we are sending a whole party."

Evans said he wanted to send beer so it'd be more like a Super Bowl party. The military has agreed to allow beer for this special occasion as it's not allowed otherwise in the war zone, he said.

Pabst, the maker of Schlitz was contacted and shortly afterward the corporation agreed to donate the beer, said Jennifer Falk, director of marketing at Lincolnwood-based Louis Glunz Beer Inc., which is a Schlitz distributor. Glunz brought the beer to Malnati's. DHL donated its services as well, Evans said.

Evans, who's a former Air Force master sergeant, got the idea about a year ago after eating Lou Malnati's pizza with his 16-year-old son, Kent, who attends Elk Grove High School. Evans said Kent asked him if the troops had pizza to eat in Iraq, to which Evans told him they did not. And that's when Evans decided to do something about it.

Since then, Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn has introduced Evans to Jim VanNatta, head of Patriots Group Support Network. The two have teamed up on Operation Pizza, and more companies and individuals have gotten on board.

DHL is offering up a 747 transport plane for the this year's Independence Day, and it could hold 40,000 pizzas, said VanNatta, of Barrington, who helped load pizzas on the DHL trucks Friday.

Donated money to the organizations is used to buy the pizzas, which Lou Malnati's sells at cost, Evans said.

To donate, go to the Web site pizzas4patriots.com