What is better than a team of local firefighters pulling up in front of your house in their firetruck to deliver your Pizza Ranch delivery order to your son? Answer : NOTHING.

A couple of weeks ago, the Sioux Center Pizza Ranch teamed up with their local fire department for their annual fundraiser. At least 8 years running, this year the fire department took one night where they had 5 trucks running all over town with at least 10 firefighters delivering pizza and chicken with lights on and sirens blaring. A total of 102 firetruck deliveries were made to the Sioux Center community.

The entire evening is basically a Community Impact night for the fire department; they get to keep all tips they make and earn a percentage of the sales as well. I spoke with Jon, Co-GM of the Sioux Center Pizza Ranch, who gave a great overview of the program. We all know how expensive gas is right now and it’s not cheap to fill up 5 big firetrucks for deliveries. The local COOP donates the fuel to the fire department so that they can run their trucks expense-free. The department also uses this evening as a grid exercise to help train the firefighters on how to best navigate some of the residential roads of Sioux Center.

One of the most interesting things that Jon shared is how much this fundraiser has grown since it’s origin almost a decade ago. In the beginning, the trucks would pull into the Ranch parking lot, pick up the delivery order(s), run the delivery and then come back to the Ranch for the next one. The community has supported this fundraiser so well and placed so many orders on this particular evening that they’ve had to change their delivery strategy. A group of firefighters will use their own vehicles to pick up the deliveries from the Ranch and then meet the trucks in different parts of the town with the order; the trucks will then deliver to the houses. While those deliveries are being made, the personal vehicles are headed back to the Ranch to grab the next round of deliveries. This is happening all over Sioux Center with all 5 fire trucks. Jon mentioned that while this has worked well in years’ past, they will need a new plan for next year because the orders have outgrown that framework.

Huge shout-out of thanks to the Sioux Center team for supporting such a critical organization within their community! Nice work everyone.