How buying a slice of pizza is part of new Morrisville mayor's plan to better community

You can't miss him with his inch-high pompadour. Morrisville's new mayor, Gary Wallace, wears the Elvis Presley look well. He's brought the old hair style back into vogue and he wants to do the same for the old town of Morrisville.

"We're like a hub. You can get everywhere from Morrisville. We have so much untapped potential here," he said as he sat chatting at the Morrisville United Methodist Church on a Saturday when the Interfaith Food Alliance was giving out food, diapers and household products to many people in need.

The alliance receives support from 14 different religious organizations and houses of worship as well as several businesses in Lower Bucks County.

Wallace, 37, a relative newcomer to Morrisville, was promoting a "Buy a Slice, Send a Slice" drive he's hosting with the Bella Sicily pizza shop at 44 E. Bridge St. in Morrisville.

Everyone who buys a slice of pizza at the shop from April 13 to 20 will see another slice donated to families helped through the alliance.

Bella Sicily owners Anthony Picone and his daughter, Gabriella Catania, said they are happy to help the mayor raise the funds. Catania said the shop will keep count off the slices of pizza sold that week and when they get to eight, will set aside a voucher for a pizza pie. They will present the Food Alliance with the vouchers to give to needy families who would like to come to the shop for a pizza.

Wallace, a graduate of William Tennent High School in Warminster, was appointed as Morrisville mayor in November to fill the unexpired term of Brud Anderson who resigned. Wallace was initially one of 10 candidates and after three rounds of voting, he said borough council elected him by a 5-3 vote.

"I wanted to get involved ... See how we can contribute to help the community," Wallace said. "Bring more community events back to Morrisville."

Interfaith Alliance filling need in Lower Bucks

As he talked, alliance volunteers handed out food and supplies to people in the borough who are struggling to get by. The pantry serves 350 to 400 people each month.

"The cost of living has gone up from COVID and hasn't dropped," said Chris Tidd, of Falls, who volunteers at the pantry.

Interfaith Food Alliance Director Diane Coyle, of Lower Makefield, said that rents in area apartments have risen several hundred dollars a month since the pandemic began and they haven't come back down. This is putting a real dent in the ability of struggling families to get back their financial footing, she said.

Beditza Cadillo said some people are now living two families to a two-bedroom apartment so they can survive but they want to be in Morrisville because "it's a beautiful small town."

The alliance receives support from multiple organizations, including the Bucks County Opportunity Council and packs bags of groceries, produce, meat, diapers and other items for qualified families to pick up two times a month. Freezers and refrigerators on the church's second floor are used to store the perishable items.

Volunteers include Jackie Sanders, an accountant who keeps the records, and high school students like Will Simons, of New Hope, and Roland Stevens, of Fairless Hills, who come on Saturday mornings to help out.

A woman named Stephanie said the food alliance helped her and her husband through unemployment and medical issues. She's now back to work and their two children are doing well. But they are still struggling. Their rent has gone from $1,150 to $1,700.

"It's an amazing program. The workers, volunteers are beautiful, loving, caring people," she said. "We've never had a holiday where we felt we didn't have enough ... To not worry that my kids have to be fed takes a huge weight off my shoulders," Stephanie said.

She sometimes shares supplies in a "trickle down" effort to help others.

The food alliance has also been "a saving grace" for Maria Rodriguez, a divorced mom of a 12-year-old son whose father died. She was burned in an apartment fire in 2019 and spent three months in a coma. She has since gone through multiple surgeries as she recovers.

She said the alliance members "have been my saving grace ... If it wasn't for the food alliance, we would have starved. My son has never gone to bed on an empty stomach."

She heard about the alliance through the Morrisville schools where 63% of the students are on reduced or free lunch programs for which their families qualify, Morrisville Interim Superintendent of Schools David Bolton said.

The mayor said the Morrisville High School is now graduating fewer than 60 students a year and that small a school cannot provide the students with a wide variety of educational opportunities. Bolton said this year's graduating class is 59 and next year's is shaping up to be 49, but there are more students in the lower grades.

Morrisville mayor weighs in on Morrisville-Pennsbury proposed merger

Wallace would like to see a merger between the Morrisville and Pennsbury school districts. While Pennsbury nixed the merger for now as it prepares to build a new high school, Wallace said, "I'm trying to talk to everyone I need to talk to to see if we can make the merger happen."

Ironically, Wallace said, that after the Saturday meeting with the Interfaith Food Alliance and the people they serve, he accepted an invitation to join the Mayors Alliance to End Childhood Hunger, a group of 342 mayors who are working on this project throughout the United States.

"I'm trying to bring some positivity and light back to Morrisville," he said.

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Morrisville pizza shop, mayor build community with slice effort