Owner of Southern Coals Helping Cumberland County With More Free Meals
For Jason Hairr, helping out in the community was the obvious thing to do as Cumberland County prepared for a new temporary normal as the coronavirus impact hit. The owner of Southern Coals Restaurant and Burney’s Sweets & More on Raeford Road in Fayetteville, could have easily stayed entirely focused on his business, and nobody would have blamed him.
“Once they announced schools were out, we knew there were a lot of children that depend on the meals that they get from school,” Hairr said. “So I reached out to Cumberland County Schools nutrition to see where we could help.”
That help has led to over 1,500 meals served, and more are on the way.
Many children in the community only receive healthy meals when they are at school, and with schools closed, there was a gap in the system. The school system immediately jumped in and begin serving meals to families for free at pickup locations across the city. That program continues Tuesday, and Hairr and his Southern Coals team will be right back out helping.
“We started that first week helping the school system with preparing meals for take out because they weren’t used to that,” Hairr said. “After that, several of our customers reached out to see how they could help.”
That led to partnerships that have allowed Hairr to keep providing meals. Lafayette Ford stepped up to help Southern Coals for the meal drop set for Tuesday. They’ll be out at Kinlaw’s Supermarket at 1802 Sapona Road in Fayetteville from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. giving free meals to all children under the age of 18.
“We’ll do close to 500 meals tomorrow, and Tuesday will be about our 2,000th meal we put out,” Hairr said.
Hairr also said that his regular businesses are still going, though not without some challenges. Store hours have been cut, and several employees are out temporarily. He said store sales were down about 40-45 percent.
“We’re still getting a lot of support from people getting takeout and delivery, so that really helps,” Hairr said. “People are also still eating their sweets, so that’s definitely been a good thing for us.”
Hairr said he’s happy to be giving back to the community at a time of need.
“The Lord has blessed us with enough business to stay open,” he said. “And we feel like that gives us an opportunity to give back where we can.”
