For its 30th birthday, Mad Mex is doing the gifting.

All food and beverage sales from 5 p.m. to close on Monday at eight Mad Mex restaurants will be donated to the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. The ninth, in Erie, will give funds to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest Pennsylvania.

Not just profit — every dollar.

“Eating is fundamental human right, especially in a country where there should always be enough to go around,” said Big Burrito Restaurant Group president Bill Fuller. “It’s our responsibility to help. If you have some extra wood, build a bigger table, not a higher fence.”

He said he is grateful to all of the customers who help him feed his family. Growing up in rural Pennsylvania, Fuller knows about food insecurity. He remembered getting free lunch at school and the Salvation Army bringing boxes of food to their door.

Fuller recalled one day as a child his sister picked up a chair and said she was Wonder Woman. The leg of the chair smacked the light bulb, which busted it and sent shattered pieces of glass into the bowl of pancake mix on the kitchen table.

“We didn’t eat that night,” said Fuller. “It was the Thursday before my mom’s payday and we didn’t have money to buy more food. That feeling sucks.”

Fuller is a former board member at the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, and he said that food insecurity can happen to anyone.

“It is getting close to the holidays and since the pandemic there is a greater need and now with inflation and rising food costs, everything is going up and up,” he said.

The amount he is hoping to donate is at least $50,000. The plan is to staff the restaurants — Canonsburg, Cranberry, Monroeville, Ross, Shadyside, Robinson, Scott Township, and Waterworks and Erie — like it’s a Saturday night. The wait staff will keep their tips, he said.

“The more guests we have, the better,” Fuller said. “This also includes takeout meals. Mad Mex has been feeding people since 1993, and it’s been extremely important for us to give back to the community we serve.”

The Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank distributes food for more than 42 million meals annually across 11 counties in southwestern Pennsylvania through a network of more than 1,000 agencies, partners and programs.

Like the Food Bank, the team at Mad Mex and big Burrito know that nourishment with good food is key to a good life, Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank president and CEO Lisa Scales said in a statement.

“The Food Bank is honored to be the charity of choice for this birthday celebration. The pledge to share sales is an act of love for our neighbors who work so hard to put food on their own tables. These are financially trying times for so many in our region and these funds will go a long way to provide much-needed grocery items.”

Courtesy of Big Burrito Restaurant Group The nine Mad Mex locations will be donating all food and beverages sales to the food bank from 5 p.m. to close on Oct. 30 to celebrate the restaurant’s 30th birthday.  

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