Arlington restaurant's ‘pay it forward' wall dried up so Hurtado Barbecue stepped in

At Nearly Famous Burgers and Hotdogs in Arlington, it's OK to need help-- and hundreds of people have received that message, through receipts taped up on a wall.

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

"They say, ‘OK, well, there’s four cheeseburgers and four drinks,' so all they do, is they turn around, and they hand it to that register person and no questions will be asked," owner Jeremy Lowe explained.

It's a concept Lowe started about a year ago, when a neighbor noticed Lowe's efforts to feed those experiencing homelessness every year, donating thousands of burgers and hotdogs.

The anonymous neighbor dropped off $500 to start a Pay it Forward Wall at Lowe's restaurant, and it's been running ever since.

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

But the wall at Nearly Famous meant to support others-- and the man behind it-- has also recently needed help.

“Last couple months of summer, we took a loss net profit," Lowe said. "It was 106 degrees outside, business was very, very slow. So, when there’s no business, there wasn’t anything on the pay it forward wall.”

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

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

He said he had paid out of pocket to keep the wall going before but this time, he just couldn't.

“I can only put in so much, you know, and I was at the point where it was hard to make payroll. It was hard to buy food to sell. So, I had to turn a couple of people away," Lowe said.

He said that's when he turned to friend and local business owner, Brandon Hurtado, owner of Hurtado Barbecue.

“That’s when I was like, yeah absolutely, let’s throw brisket nachos on the menu, let’s see what we can do to get people in your restaurant," Hurtado said.

Hurtado had known about the wall-- and had donated to it before. It's a mission that he identifies with: His business was born out of COVID and had to shut down a couple of months later. Since then, he's tried to give back to the community, too.

“The first thing we did was we tried to invest back in the community, we said, ‘How can we help people?' So, we started giving out meal kits to people who were out of jobs," Hurtado said.

When Lowe reached out to do a collaboration, Hurtado saw it as another opportunity to give back.

The duo partnered to bring Hurtado's brisket nachos to Nearly Famous on Friday.

Lowe said the initiative was a major success-- it not only brought customers through his door, 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 put that on the wall and I’m going to Venmo you $750, I’m going to match it out of pocket," Lowe said.

He said that $1,500 pays for 100 meals, which went up on the wall on Monday.

It wasn't the first collaboration the two did, but it was perhaps the most urgent, with the wall empty.

"The man has never taken a penny—to this day—from me. Not a single cent," Lowe said.

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

Candace Carr knows first-hand what that's like.

“I do feel like everybody is kind of like one emergency away from needing it," she said.

She never thought she'd be one of those people, but found herself out of a paycheck after her son was hospitalized for about three weeks over the summer, and she didn't have paid time off or short-term disability.

"I didn’t have groceries, and I remembered the wall. And it really did take a lot for me to message Jeremy but he was so kind. He was just like say less, say less, come over here and I’ll have it ready for you," Carr said.

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

“I think whenever you’re in a situation like that, you kind of feel like a failure, no matter like if it’s your fault or not. Especially when you have kids involved because you’re like, ‘I’m supposed to provide,’ you know? And when you can’t provide, it sucks," Carr said.

It's a story that brings Hurtado to tears.

"I’m a dad and I have three kids, as well, you know. I would hope that there would be someone there for me to be able to put food on the table for my kids if I needed that," he said.

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

“My kids are everything to me, and if we’re able to be there for someone else who’s just trying to provide for their family or they’re in a tough spot, that means the world to me," Hurtado said.

Lowe is grateful to continue to dish out help, after getting a taste of it, himself.

“I built this wall and I promised I would never let it die, so I need to go ask for help. I needed his help. And boy, did he come through," Lowe said.