TEXARKANA, Texas - Walk-On's Bistreax of Texarkana staff members handed out take-out meals to a steady stream of visitors on Tuesday.
These meals are to help feed workers furloughed because of the COVID crisis.
"Walk-On's partnered up with Furlough Kitchen, a Dallas-based organization dedicated to feeding furloughed workers," said Byron Mitchell, operating partner. "This effort is paid for by the Walk-On's Foundation, an organization created to give back to communities to help revitalize recreation and youth activity centers. When the COVID situation happened, we decided to redirect funds to purchase 500 meals a day for each Walk-On's restaurant when their time came up."
Walk-On's Texarkana did it Tuesday and will be handing out another 500 meals from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday.
Elza Mozell of Redwater ISD was one of the meal recipients and was grateful for the effort.
"I think it is pretty cool, what they are doing here," he said. "We're regular customers and it is good to see them doing this."
As Walk-On's extended this effort, they looked forward to Friday, as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has loosened the restrictions on Texas restaurants due to COVID.
"We are excited to open up our dining room this Friday," said Ricky Tompkins, franchise partner. "More to the point, we are excited about our employees rejoining us as they come back from furlough. They return to us this Friday."
Walk-On's will be practicing social distancing, with their dining room operating at 25 percent capacity. All employees will wear masks and gloves to help protect both customers and employees.
Even though the situation is not quite over, it is the beginning of the end.
"Welcome back, Texarkana," he said.