One otherwise ordinary afternoon, a woman called Rosco’s Pizza in Union, Michigan, and asked, “Do you have any food that you throw away?” Manager Shanna Crice had to disappoint the anonymous caller. But the call gave her an idea… And Rosco’s Meal Wakk was born…
“I said, ‘Why are you asking?’” Crice recalled, “and she said, ‘I just wondered if you throw anything away,’ and she hung up. Crice was in the middle of the suppertime rush and forgot about the call for the moment. “I was busy, [just] and kept going…”
But later…
When things calmed down, later in the evening, Crice mentioned the encounter to the kitchen crew. And more than one of them wondered if the person was asking because she had nothing to eat…
“I felt bad instantly,” Crice recalls. “I had totally dismissed it because I was in a rush. That wasn’t very humble of me.” That was the start of a process that culminated in the creation of a ‘Meal Wall’ at Rosco’s and an avalanche of accolades for the tiny resto.
Germ of an idea
Crice reached out to the mystery caller via the shop’s Instagram account…
“To whom it may concern: You called Rosco’s last week. The phone call was out of the ‘ordinary’. You asked if we throw our food away at the end of the night? I was busy at the time of the call and hur-ried off the phone. Now, a few days later I haven’t stopped thinking about it. […] My conscious hasn’t let me put it down. So if this was you, and maybe you were hungry […] Please call back so we can have a different conversation.”
The response from commenters all over the map was totally unexpected. Folks from as far away as Australia chimed in:
“Major kudos to this pizza shop”
“Bless you and your establishment!”
“Seriously considering booking a flight from Denver to come support your pizzeria!”
“Don’t know how I can help as a Nigerian but because of this, I am going to pay an ‘extra attention’ to the first four needy people I see on the road today.”
The Meal Wall
In the same Instagram post, Crice announced the establishment of the resto’s new Meal Wall, a notice board on which customers can ‘post’ vouchers for pre-paid meals for those who can’t afford to buy a pizza.
Moments after Crice opened the shop the next morning, folks started calling Rosco’s to offer donat-ions to the cause. And by the end of the week, donations had come in from all over the world.
The Meal Wall is now perpetually covered with $10. vouchers for free food. Each is accompan-ied by the name of the donor and their location: Arkansas, Florida, Portugal, Spain, France.
Happy ending
Crice has since reached out to local schools and churches: “I’m sure you’re going to run into some families in need,” she told one principal she spoke with, “so send them our way.”
“I’ve had a chance to sit and look at the board, and it was very overwhelming, emotionally,” Crice told the TODAY show. “Looking at how many meals are up there is just amazing.”
My take
I’ve heard of Meal Wall projects by independent restos and grocers in small towns around North America. The concept has all kinds of charms, in my book. But the most important is, it’s a grassroots effort – people helping others directly, in their own community. And that, I believe, is how charity should be, at its best…
One point remains unresolved… The anonymous caller who triggered the whole Rosco’s affair has still not come forward. But maybe it’s better that it stays that way…
~ Maggie J.