Last year, they took the restaurant to the darkest days of the pandemic with donations. Now, they are carrying each other – with donated meals.
The restaurant, a staple product for almost 16 years in Norfolk, Virginia, started a free meal initiative to feed the community with donations of customers’ meals.
Anyone who needs a meal can go to the restaurant, remove a ticket from the “Franks for Friends” notice board and exchange it for a menu item.
“Maybe Covid hit them pretty hard, or they’re in between jobs – or maybe they’re taking a meal to their neighbor,” Tarah Morris, owner of Perfectly Frank, told CNN. “We don’t ask questions.”
The initiative started and grew rapidly
The idea of ”Franks for Friends” started with a single donation.
After reopening the restaurant for meals in person, Morris said community donations declined as people felt a sense of normalcy.
But his team – mainly college students at Old Dominion University – struggled to survive.
A longtime friend and customer donated $ 2,000 to the restaurant, asking $ 100 to go to each member of the team and the rest to go to feed the community. With $ 700 left, Morris started handing out free meals.
The initiative has evolved rapidly. Customers also started donating. A notice board was put up. A clipboard was assigned.
“I had no idea this was going to happen,” said Morris. “We started to collect meals faster than we distributed them.”
Morris said that about five people claim meals a day – a figure that barely exceeds the amount that is available. To get more meals, Morris’ team prepares bulk orders for local programs after classes twice a week.
At the restaurant, she tries to keep meals on the different bulletin board.
Hot dogs, salads and melted products populate Perfectly Frank’s extensive menu – but cheeseburgers are the most popular items.
Free meal customers take their ticket to the cashier to redeem it, where they can personalize their order and choose a drink.
‘It’s not even about the money’
Morris said he is receiving calls, emails and letters from people in the United States who want to support “Franks for Friends”.
An email from Miami, Florida caught her eye.
“He said, ‘I don’t have a lot of money – I’m really broke – but I saw your story …’ and was so happy to know that there are good people out there doing good things in this chaos,” said Morris.
Later, the man called to donate a meal – $ 10 – but his card was declined.
The Perfectly Frank employee who was on the phone with him entered the card details, donating $ 20 in his name.
“This story was the most moving and involved only $ 20,” said Morris. “It’s not even about money. It’s about people doing good things for someone.”
There is no end in sight
Morris said the surplus of donated meals is so great that she cannot predict the end.
“I hope it will go on forever,” she said. “At the rate at which donations are coming, I feel that it will never stop.”
Morris said he hopes to partner with more local organizations to distribute meals in bulk. But for now, she said that all that happened was a much-needed lift in spirits.
“Leaving Covid and all the difficulties – we didn’t know if we could do it,” she said. “We went from ground zero to the highest possible level. It has been very uplifting, very humiliating. We know that we are going to be fine.”
Morris said Perfectly Frank has distributed more than 100 meals so far. She doesn’t think they are going to end anytime soon.