Madison Protests Fueled by Pizza

Politico has what may be the feel-good food-meets-politics story of the year: People from over a dozen countries and all 50 states have called Madison, Wisconsin, pizza restaurant Ian's to buy pies for the protesters flooding the Wisconsin capital's downtown and Capitol Building.

The volume is serious: "On Saturday alone, Ian’s gave away 1,057 free slices in their store and delivered more than 300 pizzas to the Capitol itself."

And the donors are diverse: "The blackboard behind the counter lists the 'countries donating' as 'Korea, Finland, New Zealand, Egypt, Denmark, Australia, US, Canada, Germany, China, England, Netherlands, Turkey, Switzerland, Italy' and has the abbreviations for all 50 states listed below, with donating states circled."

It's anybody's guess how the standoff over the governor's bid to strip state unions of collective bargaining rights will go, but it seems unlikely that the protesters will starve anytime soon.

Just as a point of interest, the restaurant's menu is fairly interesting. In February alone, specials included a beef stroganoff pizza, a hummus and smoked paprika pizza, and a chicken paprikash pizza.

Image source: CHOW.com