CJones
Final Approach
I have been kicking this idea around for a while, but I thought I would see what some more 'educated' folks have to say about it...
My brother-in-law, while returning to Alaska from Iraq yesterday, said he had his meal at an ORD restaurant paid for by a couple of total strangers. This just caused my 'idea' to be reignited. My idea is to set up a website/business model (mealtabforsoldiers.com) where businesses are able to advertise their 'membership' in the program. Member restaurants set up a running tab to pay for meals for soldiers. The tab can be added to by anyone that eats at the restaurant.
Example: I go eat at Applebee's. When my server brings my check, I say "I would like to add $15 to the MealTabforSoldiers program." The server adds $15 to my check and I pay it. When a soldier visits the restaurant in their 'travel gear', their meal is paid for via the MealTabforSoldiers program without them even asking.
Obviously, this would be more localized to airport restaurants, but could be employed by any restaurants.
In return for providing a free good hot meal to a returning soldier, the company gets free advertising on the MealTabforSoldiers website with the idea being that people would tend to patronize the 'member' restaurants.
I haven't really thought about all of the specifics yet. Some things that would need to be hashed out would be:
1.) Does all of the money donated get put into one big international account, or does each restaurant keep track of their own specific balance.
2.) How to determine who gets a free meal - entire family, just soldier, only a soldier that is travelling from place-to-place, etc.
What say ye educated masses? Do you think this idea has an merit, or are our soldiers being taken care of already by the noble citizens of the U.S.?
My brother-in-law, while returning to Alaska from Iraq yesterday, said he had his meal at an ORD restaurant paid for by a couple of total strangers. This just caused my 'idea' to be reignited. My idea is to set up a website/business model (mealtabforsoldiers.com) where businesses are able to advertise their 'membership' in the program. Member restaurants set up a running tab to pay for meals for soldiers. The tab can be added to by anyone that eats at the restaurant.
Example: I go eat at Applebee's. When my server brings my check, I say "I would like to add $15 to the MealTabforSoldiers program." The server adds $15 to my check and I pay it. When a soldier visits the restaurant in their 'travel gear', their meal is paid for via the MealTabforSoldiers program without them even asking.
Obviously, this would be more localized to airport restaurants, but could be employed by any restaurants.
In return for providing a free good hot meal to a returning soldier, the company gets free advertising on the MealTabforSoldiers website with the idea being that people would tend to patronize the 'member' restaurants.
I haven't really thought about all of the specifics yet. Some things that would need to be hashed out would be:
1.) Does all of the money donated get put into one big international account, or does each restaurant keep track of their own specific balance.
2.) How to determine who gets a free meal - entire family, just soldier, only a soldier that is travelling from place-to-place, etc.
What say ye educated masses? Do you think this idea has an merit, or are our soldiers being taken care of already by the noble citizens of the U.S.?
