CULLMAN – On the Fourth of July, local resident Rachel Bryant, who founded the popular online group Karma in Cullman, began putting together something she is calling The Pending Project.
“The idea came when I was watching this video online and it was a video of these two men who walk into a coffee shop,” she said. “The one man orders five coffees, two to-go, and three ‘pending.’ Which meant that those three coffee orders were already paid for and the next people to order, their order would already be paid for.”
Bryant said that the idea grew in her head and she quickly had the thought that this could be bigger than just coffee.
“I began contacting and working with area restaurants and getting people on board,” she said.
The vision Bryant has for Cullman is that all the county’s restaurants will participate and anyone gracious enough to make a pending order will be able to, anywhere they go.
“I’ve approached all but one restaurant in the city of Cullman, and three are already on board: Krystal, Rally’s and the Taco Bell on Cherokee Avenue. Every other place I visited was very enthusiastic about it, I just have to get in contact with the corporate offices and go through them. But all the shift managers have been very receptive to the idea,” she said.
The process for making a pending order will vary slightly between each restaurant and how each of them want to do it, according to Bryant.
“Some of them might have a gift card that when you order you just say, ‘I want to also make a pending order of $5’ and that $5 will go on that gift card that the manager has access to and can be accessed whenever a hungry or needy person comes in and asks if there are any pending orders,” she explained. “It’s not much to just ask the restaurant you’re at, ‘Hey, am I able to make a pending order here?’”
Bryant says she is developing a logo and a sign or decal that she hopes to place on the doors of the participating restaurants to help patrons and the hungry know which establishments are participating in the project.
“This is really to help those who really are in need of food and are hungry,” Bryant said. “I know some people are discouraged from just giving money to people with signs because what if that money just goes to buy cigarettes or alcohol, you know? This is a way for people to point those hungry and in-need to the nearest participating restaurant so they can get food.”
To find out more, visit http://qrne.ws/pending or http://qrne.ws/karmaincullman.
UPDATED JULY 11:
As of July 11, participating restaurants are:
- Krystal located at 1701 Second Ave. SW
- Taco Bell located at 1669 Cherokee Ave. SW
- Rally's Hamburgers located at 724 Second Ave. NW
- William’s Barbecue located at 2021 Second Ave. SW
- KFC located at 1620 Second Ave. SW
- KFC located at 5799 Alabama Highway 157
- Cici’s located at 1842 Patriot Way
- Sweet Peppers Deli located at 303 Second Ave. NW
- Catfish N Que located at 171 Fourth St. SW
