LEXINGTON COUNTY, S.C. — A burger restaurant in Red Bank is starting the new year on a positive note, focusing on loving their neighbor through a new initiative.
A customer chooses something from the menu to buy, they purchase it, and the employee tapes this receipt to the meal board. Then someone in need can come in, take the receipt and have a free meal since someone else has already paid for it. The idea is to help people down on their luck, short on money or homeless.
Jay Webb, the owner of Hwy55 Burgers, Shakes & Fries, said the easiest way to love his neighbor is to serve them food.
"All I'm doing is providing the place for this to take place," Webb said.
He adopted the "Love Your Neighbor Meal Board" just two months ago. He said he got the idea from his wife, who saw other restaurants around the country adopting the concept.
"Someone tagged me in a post again and I was like, that's it, we're going to do it. And so I shared that post on my social media and it had something like 1500 reactions," Webb said.
"You have some people come in. They're getting a meal for them and their spouse. We ask that they both be here, or that all members be here, just cause we do want to spread it around as much as possible. If we have five meals up there, we don't want one person taking five meals for themselves. We'd love to feed everybody every day for free, but we just can't," Webb said.
According to Hwy55, they've served about 1,000 free meals, and the board consistently has about 20 receipts a day to choose from.
"More than you can count on your hands," employee Nate Brazell said.
Webb explains the Red Bank community has really rallied around this initiative.
"I had guys who owned local businesses that said hey, I'll buy the first 50 meals, I'll buy the first $200 in meals," Webb said. "Waitress asks the standard questions of what do you want on your burger, what kind of cheese, or what kind of drink and stuff like that. So it really, it didn't really increase the workload much and the staff here that we have around and the culture, they're probably not going to make tips off of many of those folks, but they don't mind because they know this is the right thing to do."
Locals Sonya and Jay Poole said they try to donate a meal every time they come in for lunch.
"Even a simple $10 meal, you don't realize what that's going to do for somebody," Sonya said. "To think of somebody that's having to dig in a trash can because they can't afford to buy a meal. It's $10 out of my pocket; it's not going to break me."
Webb said his goal is to upgrade the board and keep this going as long as he's in business.
"Eventually we're hoping that a meal turns into getting these folks off the streets. And not just off the streets and staying in temporary living, but employed, getting their GED if they need it," Webb said.
According to the owner, the restaurant had over $115 worth of meals paid for today.