NOME, Alaska -- Last Christmas, residents of the Yupik Eskimo village of Savoonga added a special dish to their everyday fare of whale, walrus, reindeer and berries -- pizza flown in from Nome, 170 miles away.
A tiny delivery joint, Airport Pizza, had opened several months earlier, just steps from Nome's busy runways, and many of Savoonga's 700 residents were eager to try it out.
Nome's first and only pizza delivery service does a robust business in the Alaska town of 3,500.
But it really stands out for its free deliveries via commuter plane to more than a dozen other remote subarctic villages spread over a region the size of Washington state.
The village council in Savoonga, on St. Lawrence Island in the icy Bering Sea, wanted a special holiday treat for young families in the village. It ordered 50 pizzas, half topped with chicken and ranch dressing and the other half with Canadian bacon and pineapple.
But it really stands out for its free deliveries via commuter plane to more than a dozen other remote subarctic villages spread over a region the size of Washington state.
The village council in Savoonga, on St. Lawrence Island in the icy Bering Sea, wanted a special holiday treat for young families in the village. It ordered 50 pizzas, half topped with chicken and ranch dressing and the other half with Canadian bacon and pineapple.
Julia Noongwook, 41, said it was the first time she had tasted the popular chicken ranch pie.
"It was good," she said. "I like chicken."
'IT'S A FUN THING TO DO'
"It was good," she said. "I like chicken."
'IT'S A FUN THING TO DO'
Frontier Flying Service, an intrastate airline, volunteered last year to fly the pizzas at no charge to every village on its regular flight schedule out of Nome, a Bering Sea town settled in 1899 during a gold rush.
Craig Kenmonth, general manager of Frontier, said the free delivery service helps the carrier market itself in a way that benefits customers in the largely Yupik and Inupiat Eskimo villages.
Thank you to the Chicago Sun-Times who I am sure won't mind us reprinting this article as its all done for charity.
Thank you to the Chicago Sun-Times who I am sure won't mind us reprinting this article as its all done for charity.
For more information on this story click this link. I hope things haven't gone awry for Airport Pizza as their website no longer seems to load. If any of our Alaskan readers have any more information please let us know at pizzasandstuff@hotmail.co.uk
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Please help us and make a donation by clicking on the widget on the top left or visiting http://www.justgiving.com/pizzasandstuff
If you really like us you can even download the widget to your own site and help us raise even more dough
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