Is National Pizza Party Day the same as National Pizza Day?

No, they are two different days. National Pizza Day falls on February 9, while National Pizza Party Day falls on the third Friday in May.

Why is National Pizza Party Day on the third Friday in May?

The company that named it chose that week because it marks the end of many sports seasons and of the school year, and the start of summer. No other reason for the date is documented in the sources checked.

Did Congress classify pizza as a vegetable for school lunches?

No. The 2011 provision, Section 743 of Public Law 112-55, blocked funding for a rule that would have credited tomato paste and puree by volume, and the section never mentions pizza.

National Pizza Party Day

Next celebratedFriday, May 21, 2027

A pizza party is really about the room, and National Pizza Party Day gives that room a date. Order more than feels sensible, open the boxes in the middle of the table, and let people help themselves.

See how to celebrate

Countdown to the day

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Last updated September 7, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?

YEARLY DATEThird Friday in May

OBSERVED INUnited States

CATEGORYFood

SUBCATEGORYPizza

ORIGIN

Corporate Initiative

FOUNDING ENTITY

Garlic Jim's Famous Gourmet Pizza

FIRST OBSERVED

2007

HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

A pizza franchise put its own day on the calendar.

Garlic Jim's Famous Gourmet Pizza, a franchise chain based in Everett, Washington, nominated May 18, 2007 as National Pizza Party Day through Chase's Calendar of Events. The reference work's 2007 edition is the earliest one HathiTrust's index shows carrying the phrase.

Read the 2007 announcementvia PMQ Pizza Magazine

INTRO

Somewhere between a reward and a joke

In May 2007, a pizza chain in Everett, Washington put National Pizza Party Day on the American calendar and marked its first year by giving pizza parties away to school classrooms. Customers entered a drawing online, chose the store nearest them, and nominated a school and one particular classroom to receive the food. One party per trade area, and only pending teacher approval.

That is an odd way to launch a food holiday. It is also a clue about the format. In America the pizza party has spent decades attached to something a group has to earn first.

The company gave a reason for choosing the third Friday in May. The date, it said, marks the end of many sport seasons and the school year. The pizza, in other words, is what arrives once something else has been finished.

ORIGINS

Pizza Party Day history

INTRODUCTION

Long before anyone named a day for it, pizza had a fixed job in American schools. In 1984 Pizza Hut established BOOK IT!, a reading program for children from preschool through sixth grade.

A teacher set a monthly reading goal, and every student who met it got a certificate for a free Personal Pan Pizza. The unit was one child and one small pizza, not a party. Still, it put a pizza company inside the classroom from October through March, and made a prize out of something teachers already wanted children to do.

CHAPTER 01

The reward people argued about

That made it a target. In March 2007 the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood asked parents to end their schools' participation, arguing that the program promotes junk food consumption to a captive audience.

Alex Molnar, who ran Arizona State University's Commercialism in Education Research Unit, called it "corporate America using the schools as a crow bar to get inside the front doors of students' homes." Two principals quoted in the same report defended it. One of them said "the positive effects outweigh other effects."

CHAPTER 02

A gourmet chain in a hurry

Garlic Jim's Famous Gourmet Pizza was founded in December 2003. Two open stores in 2004 became 36 by 2006. Dwayne Northrop, its founder and chief executive, had started out delivering pizzas and had already co-founded another chain, Jet City Pizza.

By April 2008 the company had more than 50 stores in 10 states. Pizza Today had placed it at No. 96 on its list of the country's 100 largest pizza chains, ranked on 2006 gross sales.

CHAPTER 03

Naming a day, then letting it go

The entry went into Chase's Calendar of Events, which the company's release called the most comprehensive and authoritative reference available on special events and worldwide holidays. That same release described Garlic Jim's as recognized by Chase's, the only franchise offering a National Pizza Party Day.

The chain is much smaller now. Its own Locations page now lists five addresses across four states, and its home page does not mention the day at all. Pizzaweek.com, the contest site the day launched on, now redirects to the company's front page.

TIMELINE

Timeline

Pizza Hut launches BOOK IT!

The reading program offers children from preschool through sixth grade a free Personal Pan Pizza for meeting a monthly reading goal.

Garlic Jim's opens for business

The gourmet pizza franchise is founded in December in Everett, Washington.

The first observance

Garlic Jim's keeps May 18 as the first National Pizza Party Day, in the year Chase's Calendar of Events carries the entry.

Prizes sized by headcount

The second year's contest awards parties for approximately 25, 16 and eight people, and many locations offer deals to schools and other organizations.

New Haven sets a world record

Taste of New Haven's tenth Apizza Feast beats the previous mark of 3,357 people, set in Tulsa in 2023.

BY THE NUMBERS

National Pizza Party Day by the Numbers

41%: Children's and teens' pizza eaten at lunch
11%: US population eating pizza on a given day
~27%: Pizza eaters' daily energy from pizza
4,525: People at the record pizza party
~925,000: Elementary classrooms in BOOK IT!, 2007

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why We Love National Pizza Party Day

SCHOOLS

Over half of America's pizza is bought from a restaurant.

The USDA's national dietary survey finds that the pizza children and adolescents get at school or daycare is eaten mainly at lunch. Over half of all the pizza Americans eat comes from a restaurant, and about a quarter from a grocery store.

WORKPLACES

The office pizza party became a research subject

Vanessa Hills, a doctoral student at Western Michigan University, read a year of comments containing the word pizza across six work-related subreddits and sorted them into five categories, among them childlike, sarcasm and bad reward. The university's account of her work says the pizza party is the humorous answer to what management can do to reward staff, and that it can create unnecessary disconnect between the two.

SCALE

A party is counted by people, not by pies

Guinness World Records credits Taste of New Haven with the largest pizza party, and the city's own account of the night notes that every participant was required to eat at least two slices. That rule is the difference between a pizza party and a crowd standing near pizza.

2007 is our kick-off year and as we grow, so will the occasion.

Dwayne NorthropPresident and CEO, Garlic Jim's Famous Gourmet Pizza

The more kids see books as a way to get pizza or some other prize, the less interest they'll have in reading itself.

Alfie KohnAuthor of Punished by Rewards

GET INVOLVED

How to Celebrate National Pizza Party Day

Set up a build your own pizza bar

Put out dough or par-baked crusts, a bowl of sauce, cheese and a row of toppings, and let everyone assemble their own. It turns a single order into an activity that fills the time the oven takes.

ORDER

Order by headcount before you order by topping

Work out how many people are actually eating, then argue about what goes on top. A party that runs out of pizza gets remembered for that and nothing else.

TAKE

Take a big order to an independent pizzeria

A neighborhood shop will usually take a large order by phone and can tell you what a room of a given size needs. Ask how much notice they want before you promise anyone a party.

ASK

Ask the room what would actually land

Find out what the people you are feeding actually want before you place the order. A five-minute question beforehand is the difference between a good lunch and a running joke.

SEND

Send a party to a classroom

The day began as a giveaway aimed at schools, and any teacher can tell you what a class needs and when it would actually help. Check with the school first, which is exactly what the original contest required.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Pizza Party Day?

1 / 8

What kind of business created National Pizza Party Day?

Answer

No. It is an unofficial observance with no legal standing located in the indexes checked, including the Federal Register, so it is a normal working day.

COLOPHON

Sources

How we know what’s on this page. References, not endorsements.

15sources

12primary records

11independently dated

Primary records

PMQ Pizza Magazine2007

Garlic Jim's Famous Gourmet Pizza and Chase's Calendar of Events Declare May 13 National Pizza Party Day

The chain's own May 2007 announcement of the day, its classroom giveaway and its date.