TOLEDO, OH - Members of The University of Toledo Rockets football team helped serve fresh and hot Little Caesars pizza to the less fortunate on Friday at the Cherry Street Mission in downtown Toledo.
 
Head Coach Tim Beckman, five of his players and UT Athletic Director Mike O'Brien dished out the slices and carried them to the tables.
 
The pizzas, enough to serve some 280 people, we quickly put together and cooked in the mobile Little Caesars Love Kitchen parked outside the shelter at the corner of Madison Avenue and 20th Street.
 
"This is important for our players to give back to the community that supports them so much throughout the season," Beckman said. "To play in a bowl game associated with Little Caesars that does so much for the area, including this Love Kitchen, is truly an honor."
 
The local Toledo area franchises provided the ingredients and personnel to make the pizzas.
 
"It's great to be able to support both our community and our UT Rockets as they get ready for the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl," said Mike Wrobel, a Toledo franchisee who participated in the event. "The Love Kitchen is really a wonderful way to both and I'm happy to be a part of it."
 
The Little Caesars Love Kitchen was established in 1985 as a big-rig pizza kitchen on wheels. It travels across the continental United States and Canada to meet the needs of the hungry, the homeless and disaster victims. It has fed more than two million people in 48 states and four Canadian provinces.
 
The UT Rockets play the Florida International University Panthers at 8:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 26, at 8:30 p.m. at Ford Field in Detroit. The game will be broadcast live on ESPN.
 
Tickets for the 2010 Little Caesars Pizza Bowl are on sale at the UT Athletic Ticket Office at Savage Arena. Rocket fans may purchase tickets in the Toledo cheering section only at the UT Athletic Ticket Office, online at www.utrockets.com or by calling 419.530.GOLD (4653).

- Meghan Cunningham, UT Marketing and Communications