NORFOLK, Va. — Frankly speaking, it’s no joke: A Virginia restaurant that specializes in hot dogs is offering a free meal for customers.
“If you’re broke and hungry, we got you!” reads the chalkboard sign in front of Perfectly Frank, a restaurant located near Old Dominion University in Norfolk. “One free meal per customer, per day. No questions asked.”
According to shop owner Tarah Morris, anyone who wants to pay forward a meal for someone can do so, and the business will put a notecard on a board marked “Franks for Friends,” The Virginian-Pilot reported. Each card is redeemable for a meal.
“We just hope we can touch some people and help them through this horrible time,” Morris told the newspaper.
Morris said she got the idea in February after a customer handed her a $2,000 check for Perfectly Frank’s staff.
“She said, ‘I’ve been watching your staff hustle,’” Morris told the Virginian-Pilot. “But they’re all young kids, just trying to make their own way. They’re making less money due to COVID and no one has complained. The donor said, ‘Take this and give them each $100. And whatever is left over, use it to feed people in need.’”
After giving money to her staff of 15 -- two of them turned it down and said to give the cash to people in need -- Morris had $700 remaining, the newspaper reported.
“So we started Franks for Friends,” Morris said. “Somebody who can pay buys a meal, and it goes up on the bulletin board. If you’ve had a rough week, you’re homeless, you’re hungry, you can come in and take a ticket off the board.”
Morris emphasized that the meal can be for the person who takes the card, or for someone they choose to give it to, the Virginian-Pilot reported.
“We don’t care if it’s for you, for a neighbor, for a stranger on the street,” Morris told the newspaper. “We want to give them a meal. We’re not assuming it’s for you. We assume you’re trying to help us get food to people who need it.”