‘Pay it forward’ wall at Arlington restaurant helps those in need – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

At Nearly Famous Burgers and Hotdogs in Arlington, it’s okay to need help — and hundreds of people have received that message through receipts taped to the wall.

The vouchers are donated meal vouchers, ranging from a single meal to family meals.

“They say, ‘Okay, there’s four cheeseburgers and four drinks,’ so all they do is turn around and hand it to the cashier, no questions asked,” owner Jeremy Lowe explains.

It’s a concept Lowe’s started about a year ago, when a neighbor noticed Lowe’s efforts to feed people experiencing homelessness each year by donating thousands of hamburgers and hot dogs.

The anonymous neighbor donated $500 to start a Pay it Forward wall at Lowe’s restaurant, and it has been active ever since.

“We get single mothers, we get teachers, we get elderly people. The stories never end,” he said.

But near the wall Almost famous intended to support others – and the man behind it – has recently needed help too.

“We suffered a net profit loss over the last few months of the summer,” Lowe said. “It was 106 degrees outside and business was very, very slow. So if there was no business, there was nothing on the pay it forward wall.”

He said that for the first time he had to turn away people in need.

“We had probably been without a ticket for three or four days, and they came in and it was two boys, a girl and a mother. And they looked at the wall and there was nothing up there and I thought… sigh. I just can’t afford it,” Lowe said.

He said he had previously paid out of pocket to keep the wall standing, but this time he just couldn’t do it.

“I can only put so much money into it, you know, and I was at a point where it was hard to make payroll. It was difficult to buy food to sell. So I had to turn some people away,” Lowe said.

He said he then turned to a friend and local entrepreneur, Brandon Hurtado, owner of Hurtado BBQ.

“Then I thought, yeah absolutely, let’s put brisket nachos on the menu, let’s see what we can do to get people to come to your restaurant,” Hurtado said.

Hurtado was aware of the wall and had donated to it before. It’s a mission he identifies with: his company was born out of COVID and had to close a few months later. Since then, he has also tried to give back to the community.

“The first thing we did was try to invest back into the community. We said, ‘How can we help people?’ So we started distributing meal kits to people who no longer had jobs,” Hurtado said.

When Lowe reached out to collaborate, Hurtado saw it as another opportunity to give back.

The duo teamed up to bring Hurtado’s brisket nachos to Nearly Famous on Friday.

Lowe said the initiative was a great success: not only did it bring him customers, but Hurtado brought the Pay it Forward Wall back to life.

“I said, ‘Hey, what do you want to do with your $750?’ He said, ‘I want you to hang that on the wall and I’ll give you $750 to Venmo, I’m going to match it out of my own pocket,'” Lowe said.

He said $1,500 will pay for 100 meals, which went to the wall Monday.

It wasn’t the first collaboration the two did, but perhaps the most urgent, now that the wall was empty.

‘The man has never taken a cent from me – to this day. Not a single cent,” Lowe said.

Lowe said families have already used some of the cards posted Monday.

Candace Carr knows firsthand what that’s like.

“I feel like everyone is one emergency away from needing it,” she said.

She never thought she’d be one of those people, but found herself without pay after her son was in the hospital for about three weeks this summer and she was left without paid leave or temporary disability.

“I had no messages and I remembered the wall. And it took me a really long time to message Jeremy, but he was so nice. He was like, say less, say less, come here and I’ll do it .” it’s ready for you,” Carr said.

The mother of three said the wall made things easy at a time when she felt like a failure.

“I think when you’re in a situation like that, you feel like a failure, regardless of whether it’s your fault or not. Especially when there are kids involved, because you’re like, ‘I have to take care,’ you know? And if you can’t provide it, it sucks,” Carr said.

It’s a story that brings Hurtado to tears.

“I’m a father and I have three kids too, you know. I hope there’s someone there for me to put food on the table for my kids when I need it,” he said.

He said he appreciates Lowe for being “a conduit for giving back.”

“My kids are everything to me, and if we can be there for someone else who is just trying to provide for their family or who is in a tough situation, it means the world to me,” Hurtado said.

Lowe is grateful that he can continue to provide help after experiencing it firsthand.

“I built this wall and I promised I would never let it die, so I have to start asking for help. I needed his help. And boy, did he pull through,” Lowe said.