Local Restaurant Serves Local Customers While Donating Meals to African Children

By George Slaughter

Malawi’s Pizza franchisee Frank Franco and management trainee Jenna Archer at the pizza oven. (George Slaughter photo)

A relatively new Katy restaurant is working both to serve its local customers while donating meals to hungry children in an African country.

Malawi’s Pizza, a gourmet pizza restaurant, opened in February. It’s located at 2918 W. Grand Parkway North, Suite 230, in the Grand Morton Town Center.

For every meal purchased, Malawi’s Pizza donates a meal to children in Malawi, an African country located in the eastern portion of the African peninsula. Malawi, established in 1964, has a population of 18.09 million. Its capital, Lilongwe, is approximately 9,000 miles southeast of Katy.

The Katy franchise is one of two franchises in Texas and four nationwide. The other franchises are in Missouri City, Fredericksburg, VA, and Logan, UT.

Frank Franco and his wife, Cheryl, are based in Philadelphia but are franchisees and developers of the two Texas restaurants. The Missouri City restaurant opened a year and a half ago. He said other Texas locations under consideration for future restaurants include The Woodlands and Galveston, among other areas.

Franco said the restaurant’s “Pizza with Purpose” theme gets local customers to talk about the situation in Malawi. The restaurant has a video slideshow that shows pictures of the children who have received meals. The restaurant also has signs, updated regularly, that give the number of meals received. As of Wednesday night, over 1.1 million young Malawians have received meals.

Franco said he has not yet visited Malawi himself, but added that there’s talk of a trip being planned within the next couple of years. In this way, restaurant executives and franchisees can see for themselves how their efforts are making a difference.

The idea for the restaurant came when Blake Roney, a Utah-based businessman best known for creating Nu Skin Enterprises, was visiting Africa. Franco said Roney was traveling through Malawi, saw the poverty there, and decided that something should be done.

Roney returned home and began visiting with master chef Kent Anderson about a restaurant concept that would raise awareness in America of the problem while also doing something about it.

Malawi’s Pizza executives reached out to Franco, who has 48 years of restaurant business experience. Franco said he was intrigued by the idea and traveled to Utah to discuss the possibilities.

While Andersen is no longer with Malawi’s Pizza, Franco said he and his wife, who handles the administrative side of the business, learned a lot from him and that he was “tremendous” to work with.

“We loved the food,” Franco said. “We loved the way it worked.”

The restaurant features signature pizzas, such as Thai peanut chicken, which has satay chicken, roasted peanuts, Thai vegetable salad, and Thai peanut dressing. It also has traditional pizzas such as the meat safari, which has pepperoni, Canadian bacon, Italian sausage, bacon, and tomato sauce. It also features pastas, salads, and dessert pizzas, such as raspberry white chocolate cheesecake.

Restaurants, like any other business, want customer feedback. Malawi Pizza responded to some feedback by creating a Texas-themed pizza for meat lovers. It’s called the Texas Stampede, though it’s not explicitly on the menu.

Daniel Hall, a trainer at the restaurant, said the pizza includes barbecue sauce, shredded mozzarella cheese, beef tenderloin tips, bacon, spicy sausage, and chicken.

Franco said the restaurant encourages its employees to learn different roles within the restaurant. Dishwashers, for example, are encouraged to visit with customers just as the cooks might do.

“It’s a beautiful concept,” Franco said.

The restaurant welcomes groups for such activities as making one’s own pizza. For more information, contact the restaurant at 832-437-2437 or visit its web site malawispizzakaty.com.