Clovis Pizza Factory owners, Pavenjit and Sukhbir Dhillon, pose with MJ Riva (center) beside Red Bank Elementary School's new Buddy Bench, unveiled Nov. 14. Photo contributed

Last month Red Bank Elementary School in the Clovis Unified School District unveiled its new “Buddy Bench” in an event hosted by Pizza Factory.

The bench’s goal is to promote friendship and connection between students. It’s a place where children who need a friend can sit and others can help them out, with the slogan “Friends are Awesome.” On both sides of the bench is a peace sign underneath the words “no bully zone.”

With the addition of the buddy bench at Red Bank, Pizza Factory now has 83 benches in its seven operating states.

Pizza Factory, founded in Oakhurst in 1978 and since franchised with more than 100 locations across the U.S., strives to foster inclusivity in the communities it serves. It started in their stores when they wanted to make their employees feel connected to one another. Many of their employees, who were high school students, wouldn’t typically associate with one another due to different interests.

“We had so many high school kids that we hire in pizza places, and a lot of times, new kids would come to work that also attended the same high school, but the kids didn’t even know each other,” Pizza Factory CEO MJ Riva said. “Maybe they judged them. So, it was created at the store level. For us in our store was to create an atmosphere where everybody, when they walk in that door, doesn’t matter who you are, what you believe in, what you look like, anything, but that you’re all supposed to be treated the same.”

One reason schools like Red Bank welcome Pizza Factory is the company’s reputation for getting involved in the community.

Outside of schools, Pizza Factory also works with churches, libraries, and several other community organizations. It has been involved in charities and nonprofit organizations such as No Kid Hungry and Wreaths Across America.

“There’s nothing more rewarding than seeing a child, whether it’s a sixth grader or kindergartener, and they’re listening. They’re hopefully walking away with something that reminds them that kindness, which is what we need a lot more in the world, it begins with them that they’re not too young,” Riva said.

Lincoln Elementary School in Clovis received a Buddy Bench in 2018, reported The Clovis Roundup.