Free Pizza Delivered As Voters Wait In Line In Brookfield

BROOKFIELD, WI— Brookfield poll workers and people waiting in line to vote got a delicious surprise after they received free pizza from Nonpartisan grassroots organization, Pizza to the Polls.

The organization sends food trucks with snacks and delivers pizza to polling places with long lines. The food is free for anyone there.

The first day of early voting on Tuesday had eager voters lining up to fill out their ballots. There were long lines in the City of Brookfield as only 13 people were allowed in the city hall at one time.

Kelly Michaels, City of Brookfield Clerk, told Patch everyone was very busy and were quite surprised when a pizza delivery man stopped her in the hall. There was no time to deal with the pizzas so she told him to put them in the conference room.

After the staff finished with the last voter at 5:30 p.m., they headed to the conference room.

Michaels said everyone was shocked at how many boxes were sitting there and thought maybe they had intended them for a larger city with more workers.

Delicious democracy

Pizza to the Polls was created the weekend before the 2016 election. According to the organizations' website, long lines were reported at early voting places across the country.

The plan was to give pizza to the people and give people watching at home a way to help.

The pizza "fortified hungry voters in line, cheered up beleaguered poll workers, and gave people a way to help out their communities," the website said.

By Election Day 2016, the organization raised $10,000. A team was recruited and trained to deliver 2,368 pizzas to 128 polling places across 24 states.

"By the time the dust had settled and the ballots were cast, we had raised $43,307 from 1,728 donors, and over 25,000 slices of pizza were consumed," the website said.

With the momentum they gained after the 2016 election, The organization was able to send 10,820 pizzas to 611 polling places across 41 states and to raise $426,622 from 10,885 donors.

A nosh for later

Michaels appreciates the gesture and intent of the group's mission. The miscommunication with who the pizza was for helped the city to "dodge a bullet".

Michaels told Patch the city uses expensive machines to mark the ballots. Serving pizza to voters in line would have caused an issue with the equipment.

"Imagine all those pizza fingers on the sensitive screen of our equipment," she said.

Food for the voters in line is never a good idea as the staff is trying to keep the line moving, according to Michaels. She said any distraction to that goal just makes their jobs harder.

There are protocols in place due to the pandemic. Michaels said voters eating in line would have required masks to be removed. Michaels added, "it would have undone all of the things we were doing to keep our voters safe in the first place."

The remaining boxes were put in the refrigerator and given to hardworking volunteers.

"Who doesn’t love cold or reheated pizza," she said.