Los Angeles Ranked 'Most Generous' City by Paul Newman's Foundation
Photo by Flying Horse Farms
Earlier this summer a “Pay What You Want” food truck ambled through Los Angeles handing out hot slices of pizza. The teal green mobile kitchen was sent around the country by Newman’s Own, the non-profit food company started by the late actor Paul Newman to raise funds for their foundation and gauge the generosity of customers. After studying the findings of their new "Generosity Index," the company has declared Los Angeles to be most generous city in America.
Customers visiting the truck, which made stops from downtown to Venice in July, paid an average of $5.54 per slice, almost three times more than pizza lovers in New York, which took the number ten spot on the list. Customers in Chicago paid about half of L.A. prices. Diners in Silicon Valley were near the bottom of the list, paying $2.07 per slice. One customer in Downtown Los Angeles donated $100 for one piece. The company also parked outside concerts and notes that fans of Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, and BTS were the most generous. Baby Boomers and Gen X paid the most, at an average of $3.34 a slice, while Gen Zers kicked in $2.61 a slice.
Photo courtesy Newman's Own
"Taking the Newman’s Own pizza truck across the country as a social experiment on people’s generosity was an insightful experience,” Peter Kaye of Newman's Own, Inc. said in a statement. "While the results were entertaining and sometimes surprising, they confirmed what we already knew—Americans are generous people who love Newman’s Own pizza!”
Newman and his wife Joanne Woodward were part of a new wave of naturalistic actors, along with James Dean and Marlon Brando, that emerged from New York’s Actors Studio after World War II. The celebrity couple were known for their homebody lifestyle while living in Beverly Hills during the 1960s. Woodward was awarded one of the first batch of 8 stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the couple lived here until relocating to a farmhouse in Connecticut where Newman teamed up with neighbor A. E. Hotchner to start bottling salad dressing to give away as gifts. The pair created an entire line of dressings, cookies and other food products and Newman’s Own Foundation has been donating to children's charities like SeriousFun Children’s Network and FoodCorps since 1982.
