Cafes in and around the town of Miami (population
13,000) in Oklahoma’s northeastern corner have put up “receipt walls,” allowing
diners to pre-pay for meals for those who can’t afford them.
The idea of providing free, pre-paid
meals spread from restaurant to restaurant a few months ago.
Many recipients are homeless or are
facing hard times because of the pandemic and the two snowstorm that paralized
the town in February
Jennifer White, who owns the gourmet hot
dog spot The Dawg House, transitioned from food truck to brick and mortar last
September, a bold move in the middle of a pandemic. She was the first to put up
a giving wall. Within eight hours, she had a wall full of meal receipts.
So far, customers at The Dawg
House have provided more than 600 meals.
“And we have only eight
tables in our restaurant, so that says a lot about how amazing our community
is,” White said.
Lasay Castellano, a nursing
student and manager of Zack’s Cafe, said the diner serves about 600 people a
day. “We have a lot of homeless people
here. A lot. Within a day we had almost $600 in meals on the wall,” she said.
“We’re having a hard time keeping tickets on the wall.”
When the snowstorms hit the
town in February, everybody helped those without places to stay. Mayor Bless
Parker moved homeless into hotels and supplied them food from the restaurant walls.
Life in Miami, in an area
where lead and zinc mines ruled more than 100 years ago, is slowly moving
closer to something that looks like the old normal every day. The area’s
plentiful casinos are open, and restaurants like The Dawg House are welcoming back
in-person dining, with fewer tables to provide for social distancing.
Article from York News Time (edited)
