Inclusive pizzerias, when a pizza is enough to break down barriers

Seven stories of inclusive pizzerias throughout Italy that promote the social reintegration of disadvantaged people through pizza.

• Inclusive pizzerias are social projects, but also businesses, for the reintegration of people in difficulty.
• The initiatives aim to give work, dignity and a future to autistic children, people with Down syndrome and prisoners.
• From Bergamo to Naples, the stories born around a pizza also shine a light on mental health and the fight against crime.

Symbol of Italian cuisine that has conquered the whole world, the pizza it is a dish that speaks a simple language:its ingredients, the gestures in preparing it and its flavor are capable of uniting everyone.It is no coincidence, therefore, that pizza has become the protagonist of many projects of social inclusion that arose throughout Italy which made it the means of breaking down barriers.

Inclusive pizzerias:seven stories of inclusion from Bergamo to Naples

In the world pizza day on January 17th, let's tell the stories of some inclusive pizzerias who, while churning out excellent pizzas, dedicate themselves to social reintegration, through the work, of disadvantaged people. 

Pizzaut, two inclusive pizzerias run by autistic children

The most famous of these is Pizzaut:a pizzeria, or rather two, managed by autistic kids with the aim of giving them a job, but also dignity and a future.From the initiative of Nino Acampora, father of an autistic boy, the first pizzeria was opened in Cassina de' Pecchi (Mi) in 2021, then doubling a Monza in 2023 with the presence of the President of the Republic at the inauguration Sergio Mattarella who wanted to mention the project in his end-of-year speech.Referring to the founding values ​​of our country such as solidarity, equality, freedom, justice, peace, the president said:“I read them in the eyes and smiles of the kids with autism who work enthusiastically at PizzAut, promoted by a group of dreamers who change reality”.The non-profit organization also includes a vocational training school and courses to encourage the living autonomy of autistic people.

Pit'sa, the inclusive and plant-based pizzeria

The project also tries to change reality Pit'sa to Bergamo.Opened in 2022 by the entrepreneur Giovanni Nicolussi, sensitive to the theme of inclusiveness, is one profit pizzeria that he employs children with Down syndrome.The pizzas are all made with vegetable ingredients (with the exception of some sustainably produced cheeses) and are served with a separate bowl of tomato sauce to create a "shoe" with the cornice and avoid waste.

Porta Pazienza, pizza in solidarity and against the mafia

Going down the country, a Bologna, Bring Patience it's there ethical pizzeria born in 2020 from the social cooperative La Formica and which promotes critical consumption:the venue promotes the solidarity giving you the opportunity to donate one “suspended” pizza against the food poverty;contributes to fight against mafia using raw materials grown on land confiscated from mafiosi or products of those who report the protection payment;supports social agriculture e sustainable;offers work to vulnerable people.The project has recently also included a cooking workshop for autistic children.

Roba da Matti, a pizza for mental health

Crazy stuff, a Pisa, is an inclusive pizzeria opened in 2022 by the Alba association which is dedicated to the work and social reintegration of kids with problems mental healthand and intellectual disability.As the president of the association Diana Gallo explained in an interview, "the kids are helped a lot through work because psychiatric and psychosocial rehabilitation takes place in the places where they live".

Inclusive pizzerias:Pizza&grill Parco del Mulino

Still in Tuscany, this time in Livorno, Pizza&grill Parco del Mulino is a project of the Parco del Mulino cooperative for the integration of children with disabilities who work in the structure as pizza chefs and waiters.

La Matta Pizzeria in Scampia

An inclusive pizzeria brings beauty and lights up hope even in a difficult area like that of Escape, in Naples. Matta Pizzeria, inaugurated in summer 2023, it employs kids from the mental health center of the neighborhood and organizes baking workshops for children.It is part of the multipurpose center The Scugnizzeria, an idea of ​​the publisher Rosario Esposito La Rossa, a "creative selling place", as its creators define it, which is also a bookshop, a shop, a space for performing theater and organizing events and exhibitions, a "hospital" for books, an ecological center for the collection of used oils, batteries and light bulbs medicines.

The Pizzeria dell'Impossibile, school for prisoners and canteen for the poor

Still in Naples, the Pizzeria dell'Impossibile it's ua project born in 2013 by La Bufala Brothers with the municipality of Naples and theScugnizzi association:it's one school who teaches the art of pizza to some prisoners of prisons minors of Nisida and Airola and which every day produces a hundreds of pizzas to donate them to people in difficulty.

Fiore Cucina, the legal pizzeria

TO Lecco, Kitchen Flower is a restaurant and pizzeria built inside some premises seized from the organized crime in the 90s:offers dishes prepared with territorial and seasonal ingredients and pizza and bread made with natural sourdough and artisanal semi-wholemeal flours.Managed by the Olinda, Arci Lecco and Auser Lecco cooperative, it is a social entrepreneurship project which pays particular attention to the culture of legality, the reception and employment of disadvantaged people.

Gattabuia, prison economics project

TO Verbania, on Lake Maggiore, Gattabuia Social Restaurant is a prison economy project that combines training and professional placement of people with justice problems and at risk of social marginalization.Here "work becomes an instrument of personal revolution and food a useful means of bringing together stories".In the menus dishes and pizzas which include specialties from other countries, vegetarian and vegan options.The restaurant also carries out initiatives to donate pizzas to charities and disadvantaged people.

S'Osteria 38, new hospitality and catering practices 

To Acquapendente, in the Viterbo area, on the Via Francigena, S'Osteria 38 it is a pizza restaurant, but also a hotel, tourist information service, co-working space and events, which actively involves in the operation of the structure people with mild disabilities or social hardship.

I Fiulot, ethical inn

TO Pavia, the inn The Fiulots is a project of the Etika Social Cooperative which seeks to give a chance for economic independence and social inclusion to "people looking for a second chance".The furnishings are made by the children and educators with recycled materials, on the table dishes and pizzas are cooked with sustainable products, coming from short supply chains, small producers, social gardens, therapeutic communities and local realities.