A local takeaway boss who made the kind-hearted gesture to help people across the city by giving away free pizzas has now had to crowd fund after the campaign went viral.
Marc Wilkinson, 55, who owns Pure Pizza expected to give around 60 pizzas away throughout January but after the generous offer blew up online with the pizzeria is giving out three times that.
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In order to keep up with demand and cover costs from the ambitious stunt the local businessman has started a crowdfunding campaign to help provide free pizza to all of Edinburgh.
Marc is looking to raise £24,000 for his business which will allow them to continue the offer without losing money while supporting the staff.
On the fundraiser page, he wrote: "Hello! Please help us help as we are struggling to cope with demand. The BBC article on Monday 2nd January has gone viral.
"Our story was republished by half a dozen UK papers and also online worldwide.
"My name is Marc Wilkinson, and my shop Pure Pizza is offering everyone in Edinburgh a FREE PIZZA (with up to any 4 toppings) in January to help with the cost-of-living crisis and to maintain work for my team of chefs. It’s a win-win-win-win for all involved.
"Customers win, our chefs win, our suppliers win and the shop wins if some can afford to come back. It is kind of redistributing wealth from those who can afford to come back to those who cannot."
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He continued: "My original plan was to average 60 FREE PIZZAS per day with the existing team. However, we are averaging treble this which means that we cannot shoulder this demand alone.
"Each FREE PIZZA costs around £3 for the ingredients and around £1 for the chef’s profit to make it.
"So, every £4 that you donate will mean one more FREE PIZZA for someone in Edinburgh. Our original budget was £12,000. However, we are on target to need treble. So, we need to raise £24,000 so that we can continue to offer everyone in Edinburgh a FREE PIZZA."
The independent business owner also added: "If this fundraising is successful, we can then also make the FREE PIZZA available for delivery to communities who are not able to come to the shop to collect.
"Edinburgh's five hospitals are all within our delivery area so I would love to be able to deliver pizzas to every hospital ward in Edinburgh to bring all the patients, nurses and doctors together.
"Community is just about all helping each other as best we can. Please donate just what you feel is appropriate or please share. Thanks in advance, Marc."
You can donate to the fundraiser and find out more here. Pure Pizza has been approached for comment.
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