WEST LOOP \u2014 Growing up in a pizzeria-owning family on the South Side, Angelo Corso assumed he\u2019d follow in the footsteps of his parents and his Italian grandmother. But when Corso was one year into culinary school, his dad urged him not to join the family business, Angie\u2019s Restaurant and Pizzeria in Ashburn, and instead look elsewhere for his livelihood.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy father didn\u2019t want me stuck in the restaurant industry like him and his brother with the long hours and hard work,\u201d Corso said. \u201cHe wanted something different for me.\u201d Corso went on to pursue a career in technology, founding Core 1 Technologies and Wired Authority, the latter one of the largest business internet ZIP code search providers and internet\/telecommunication auditors in the United States.<\/p>\n
But pizza remained \u201cnear and dear\u201d to Corso, as did serving the community in the same way as his Irish grandmother, a longtime volunteer in homeless shelters. That planted the seed for him to start Doughnate Pizza, a West Loop-based nonprofit that partners with local restaurants to provide pizza and salad fixings to homeless shelters and people in need. \u201cI wanted to create a 100 percent volunteer-based organization where every single donor\u2019s dollar goes directly to pizza and feeding individuals here in Chicago,\u201d said Corso, now a Lincoln Park resident.<\/p>\n
Corso\u2019s first attempt at donating pizza wasn\u2019t without obstacles. Armed with a $100 donation, Corso bought pizzas from Giordano\u2019s and walked up and down South Michigan Avenue offering free slices to people on the street. Not all of those he approached took him up on his offer. Not wanting to waste the pizzas, Corso headed to Lincoln Park Community Services shelter in his neighborhood, where the pies were welcomed. Since then, the shelter has been on the receiving end of many more. Doughnate provides a few opportunities for donations. One is via leftover pizzas from restaurants. Doughnate volunteers, who often include Corso and his business partner, Brian Rock, pick up the pizzas and drop them off at shelters they\u2019ve worked with, which include Deborah\u2019s Place, The Night Ministry and Howard Brown Health.<\/p>\n Corso likes mixing up the styles of pizza donated to shelters. Doughnate donations also include salad ingredients. \u201cI want to give [shelter residents] the opportunity to try what we try on a regular basis, whether that\u2019s Sicilian, tavern or toppings like whipped ricotta or hot honey,\u201d he said. \u201cThey are entitled to the lifestyle that others have and the joy that comes from these things.\u201d Introduction to Doughnate WEST LOOP \u2014 Growing up in a pizzeria-owning family on the South Side, Angelo Corso assumed he\u2019d follow in the footsteps of his parents and his Italian grandmother. But when Corso was one year into culinary school, his dad urged him not to join the family business, Angie\u2019s Restaurant and Pizzeria in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31019,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-31017","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dining"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/bcc-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Blank-2000-x-1300-7.jpg?w=1920&resize=1920,1248&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31017"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31017"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31020,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31017\/revisions\/31020"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nDoughnate volunteers help serve free pizza at homeless shelters around the city. Credit:<\/span> Provided<\/span><\/p>\nDelivering After Disasters<\/h2>\n
\n<img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" width="1024" height="768" src="https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bcc-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DoughnateGroupIMG_7571-1024×768.jpeg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1<\/a>" alt="Doughnate volunteers pick up leftover pizza from restaurants like Pizzeria Lobo in Logan Square and deliver them to homeless shelters around the city." class="wp-image-940634" srcset="https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bcc-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DoughnateGroupIMG_7571-scaled.jpeg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1<\/a> 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bcc-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DoughnateGroupIMG_7571-scaled.jpeg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1<\/a> 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bcc-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DoughnateGroupIMG_7571-scaled.jpeg?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1<\/a> 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bcc-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DoughnateGroupIMG_7571-scaled.jpeg?resize=1536%2C1152&ssl=1<\/a> 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bcc-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DoughnateGroupIMG_7571-scaled.jpeg?resize=2048%2C1536&ssl=1<\/a> 2048w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bcc-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DoughnateGroupIMG_7571-scaled.jpeg?resize=1200%2C900&ssl=1<\/a> 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bcc-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DoughnateGroupIMG_7571-scaled.jpeg?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1<\/a> 800w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bcc-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DoughnateGroupIMG_7571-scaled.jpeg?resize=600%2C450&ssl=1<\/a> 600w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bcc-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DoughnateGroupIMG_7571-scaled.jpeg?resize=400%2C300&ssl=1<\/a> 400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bcc-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DoughnateGroupIMG_7571-scaled.jpeg?resize=200%2C<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"