Shoppers Get Free Pie Samples as Manna Reaches Homestretch of Annual Fundraiser
By Steve Tawa
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Just in time for Thanksgiving dinner, why not get a nice pie for dessert? And do some good while you're at it!
Manna, a Philadelphia organization that cooks and delivers meals to clients with life-threatening illnesses, has five different varieties of pies available for sale during its annual "Pie in the Sky" fundraiser.
Today, at "Pie Day" at the Shops at Liberty Place, in center city, Manna executive director Sue Daugherty said the proceeds from each pie helps feed a family of four on Thanksgiving Day.
"Although they're sick and they don't have the strength, the community cares. By buying a pie, you get a delicious pie and you're making a difference in hundreds of lives," she says.
And they are tasty. For a $25 donation you can pick from among pumpkin, apple, pecan, and sweet potato pies. And the sumptuous "Sky Pie" -- a cheesecake covered with chocolate, caramel, and walnuts, dreamed up by Manna executive chef Keith Lucas -- is $35.
"I've never gotten a better feeling for what I do, preparing food for people, than I do right now," Lucas says.
CBS3 consumer reporter Jim Donovan, who emceed today's pie sampling event, says it's a very easy ordering process: "You can go onto the web site, mannapies.org."
You can even select the seller from whom you buy your pies. "Last year I was number three (third most pies sold)," Donovan recalls. "Now I've dropped to number seven -- so hopefully we'll get the word out!"
The Friday before Thanksgiving, November 21st, is the final day of sales.
There are more than 40 locations to pick up pies on Tuesday and Wednesday of Thanksgiving week.
Brown's Super Stores, which operates 11 local Shoprite supermarkets, is the baking partner.