Pizza Joe’s Joins Oh Wow! to Offer Solar Oven Kits

NEW CASTLE, Pa. – Pizza Joe’s and Oh Wow! Children’s Center for Science and Technology are partnering to offer families a STEM activity to do at home.

The children’s museum in downtown Youngstown has been providing STEM sacks to families and offering weekly how-to videos for interactive learning at home. Pizza Joe’s, established here 40 years ago, has many of the materials needed for homemade solar ovens and wanted to offer kits to families.

“We started Pizza Joe’s at Home videos during the stay-at-home orders and wanted to create one that provides an educational lesson and food too,” says Katie Seminara-DeToro, chief marketing officer for Classi-Co Foods. “We knew we had most of the materials needed to make solar ovens, but not the directions or educational content, so we reached out to Oh Wow!”

The children’s museum and Pizza Joe’s will be making a how-to video and share some snacks families can cook in the ovens. Videos will be posted on the Oh Wow! and Pizza Joe’s YouTube pages and Facebook pages. Families will be able to pick up kits at any Pizza Joe’s location beginning April 8. 

To start, 10 kits per store will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis. If demand warrants, Pizza Joe’s, a chain of 42 pizzerias, will do a second round of solar oven kits in the coming weeks, Seminara-DeToro says.

Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.