A restaurant in Virginia is offering people one free meal a day with no questions asked.
Perfectly Frank —which dubs itself ‘an original hot dog joint’— started an initiative named ‘Franks for Friends’ earlier this month.
The kind gesture is simple. Customers can come in and pay for food for a stranger, leaving the receipt pinned on the ‘Frank for Friends’ board.
A person who comes in hungry and can’t afford to pay can choose a receipt from the board and redeem it for a free meal.
The restaurant’s owner, Tarah Morris posted on Facebook that she had worried at first about people abusing the offer, and the demand is too high to manage.
“But we realized that at the end of the day, helping people isn’t a risk. It’s a reward,” Morris told UNILAD. “During the scariest part of the pandemic, our customers donated money, to the tune of $13,000, to help us feed the less fortunate in our community.”
“It was intense trying to juggle all of the changes going on in the restaurant world along with our new exciting projects,” the owner added.
In February, a customer at the restaurant left each of its 15 staff members a $100 tip each, as well as an extra $500 to feed the hungry in the neighborhood. This generosity inspired the owner and sooner, Franks for Friends was born.
“One takeout meal, per customer, per day. No questions asked. It has been the most uplifting experience and I’m so grateful to be a part of it,” Morris wrote in her post. “I haven’t had a chance to calculate all the donations but by the looks of it FRANKS FOR FRIENDS isn’t going anywhere for a while.”
Since the initiative launched, a huge uptake was seen. Photos posted online showed a stack of receipts waiting to go up on the board.