Pita Jungle stands as the go to restaurant for healthful but delicious food with 23 locations throughout Arizona. With the mission of helping guests sustain a healthy and balanced lifestyle, the restaurants serve up a diverse menu of tasty, fresh, wholesome foods, including a variety of vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options. Pita Jungle’s menu is influenced by tastes from around the globe with the benefits of the Mediterranean diet always apparent through the use of healthy lean proteins, veggies, legumes, nuts, grains and fruit. For more information on Pita Jungle, please visit www.pitajungle.com.
For over 36 years, Waste Not has been reimagining and reinventing the food rescue process in Arizona. We’re creating sustainable food systems that help people and the planet flourish by bridging the gap between food waste and hunger. Our team of professional drivers and volunteers collect fresh food from local food businesses that would have gone to waste and deliver it that same day to nonprofits who provide critical community services. We rescued nearly 2.5 million pounds of food in 2023. For more information, visit https://www.wastenotaz.org/.
For over 36 years, Waste Not has been reimagining and reinventing the food rescue process in Arizona. We’re creating sustainable food systems that help people and the planet flourish by bridging the gap between food waste and hunger. Our team of professional drivers and volunteers collect fresh food from local food businesses that would have gone to waste and deliver it that same day to nonprofits who provide critical community services. We rescued nearly 2.5 million pounds of food in 2023. For more information, visit https://www.wastenotaz.org/.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00 The following portion of the Arizona Daily Mix is sponsored by Pita Jungle.
00:08 National Pita Day is this Friday and one of our favorites, Pita Jungle, is celebrating
00:13 by giving back.
00:15 We're so honored to have Basil from Pita Jungle and Hillary Bryant from Waste Not here with
00:20 us to tell us more.
00:21 Welcome to you both.
00:22 Thanks for being here.
00:23 Thank you for having us.
00:24 Thank you.
00:25 All right, Basil, well, we're going to start with you because we have you guys in pretty
00:28 regularly because, like I said, you're one of our all-time favorites.
00:32 I love Pita Jungle.
00:33 I love your food.
00:34 Tell us what's going on this Friday.
00:36 Well, this Friday is National Pita Day.
00:40 So on that occasion, bringing the celebration to the table, we rolled out a few pitas, some
00:45 of our favorite hits here, greatest hits.
00:50 The Philly Beef Pita, the shawarma, chicken shawarma, some skinnies, falafel skinny pitas,
00:58 the gyro.
01:01 A little taco here, slipped the radar screen, but it's very, very actually, it's a good
01:09 timing because we have Chef Eric Pinada, who's doing a pop-up kitchen at our downtown location
01:15 on the 5th of April from 6 to 9, and he's going to be doing hyper local Mexican food
01:21 from Guerrero fused with the Mediterranean diet, so the healthiness of it and all that.
01:27 Cumbia music, great event.
01:28 Wow, that sounds like a blast.
01:30 And you know, what I love about you guys and what is very represented here on the table
01:34 is that you take Mediterranean food and you kind of do it with a twist.
01:38 You change it up, you make it a little unique and different, obviously still delicious.
01:42 And another thing that's great about the Mediterranean diet is it's continuously voted one of the
01:47 healthiest diets that you can do.
01:48 So if you're looking to eat light, if you're looking to eat healthy, Pita Jungle is your
01:52 place to go.
01:53 Hear, hear.
01:54 Absolutely.
01:55 So what's special about this week is Friday is National Pita Day and you're partnering
02:00 with Waste Not, which is, Hillary, why you're here to talk about that.
02:03 Tell us a little bit about Waste Not and what you guys do.
02:06 Waste Not is a local non-profit.
02:08 We were invented in Scottsdale and we serve the entire valley.
02:14 We actually pick up prepared and perishable food that is in excess.
02:18 So any food that's back in the kitchen that would just normally get thrown in the trash
02:22 can, we pick that up and we deliver it to other non-profits that feed the hungry.
02:26 Wow, that's incredible.
02:28 So like partnering with Pita Jungle, there are places that they have a lot of extra food
02:33 at the end of the day and maybe this food would be going to waste.
02:36 So instead of that happening, you guys are taking it and making it usable to other non-profits.
02:41 We are, yes.
02:42 We rescue about 2.5 million meals per year and we serve hundreds of thousands of people
02:47 across the valley.
02:49 That's incredible.
02:50 I mean, when you think about the amount of food that unfortunately gets thrown away,
02:54 even just in our own homes, I know I can be guilty of throwing a lot of food away.
02:58 So you guys are swooping in to save the day, to rescue that food, like you said.
03:02 I love that you phrased it that way.
03:04 And you're really giving back to the community in a big, big, big way.
03:07 Yeah, we are.
03:08 This is our 36th year doing that.
03:10 We've been serving the community for a very long time and it's a huge passion of ours
03:14 to make sure that none of that food goes to the landfill.
03:17 What are some of the non-profits in the valley that you work with?
03:20 We work with several non-profits.
03:21 We work with St. Vincent de Paul, Maggie's Place, Salvation Army, drug recovery centers,
03:29 mental health centers, you name it, we probably touch it in some way.
03:34 That's really cool.
03:35 That's really, really cool.
03:36 So yeah, you guys are making a huge difference.
03:38 And I know this Friday, the partnership is specifically about pitas.
03:43 Tell me how people can come in and get involved.
03:45 So every pita that's sold at any pita jungle, we're going to pitch a dollar off of it towards
03:51 the waste not cost.
03:52 Okay, that's great.
03:53 So you're coming and you're getting any one of these delicious pitas and it's going to
03:56 be a dollar from that going to waste not.
03:59 That's huge because that's going to be if you're buying it there, you're sitting down,
04:03 you're having food with your family, even if you're taking it home to go.
04:05 Yeah, pita is a pita.
04:06 Pita is a pita.
04:07 I love it.
04:08 And it is National Pita Day, like we said.
04:11 All right, guys.
04:12 So remind me, Basel, because I know you guys have a ton of locations across the valley.
04:15 How many locations do you have now?
04:17 We have 23 locations in Arizona.
04:19 You know, one in Flag, one in Tucson and the rest of them in the metro area.
04:24 Really, really cool.
04:25 So there's plenty of locations for you to go grab a pita.
04:28 And then we have the information for waste not on your screen.
04:30 So you can learn more about them.
04:31 But it's all about this Friday.
04:33 Go get a pita, take it home, eat it there, whatever you want to do.
04:35 Thank you both for being here today.
04:36 Thank you so much.
04:37 Absolutely.
04:38 Thank you, Alexi.
04:39 The preceding portion of the Arizona Daily Mix was sponsored by Pita Jungle.
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