Local Pizzeria Offers Free Slices To Police Officers This Month

By Cleve Bryan

HAMILTON TOWNSHIP, N.J., (CBS) -- Uniformed police officers are getting a free lunch in Hamilton Township, New Jersey.

"Cheese on the bottom and the tomato sauce on top and then a little more cheese."

That's the way DeLorenzo's has been making their signature tomato pies in the Trenton area for more than 75 years.

Now situated in Hamilton Township, owner Rick DeLorenzo has always valued his business's ties to the community and lately something has been bothering him.

"With the murdering of cops and everything I feel like it's something that needs to be changed," said DeLorenzo.

He's not an activist with a bull horn – just man with a pizza oven so last week he announced on Facebook that all September DeLorenzo's is giving free food to uniformed police officers.

"They have a lot of responsibility and I know they're well trained to handle situations that they're put into and I just want to give them credit for a job well done," said DeLorenzo.

"I think it's a great idea, I mean all that they do for us, to be able to give back to them is such a great gesture," said DeLorenzo's customer Richard Bongiovanni.

The only problem so far is making police officers aware that DeLorenzo's wants to give them free pizza. Otherwise the response has been overwhelmingly positive from compliments to people offering to buy them free ingredients like cheese and pepperoni.

Inspired by DeLorenzo's, Rosa's restaurant in Hamilton Township is offering police the same deal.

"It's a way to say thank you, to invite them here to have dinner or lunch for the good community and it will be right on Rosa's," said Johnson Rivers of Rosa's Ristorante.

Both restaurants know free pizza won't solve all the world's problems, but it can't hurt.