How did “Free Food Friday” even start and is it even about food? -An Amy Speaks Blog 

We are approaching the drawing for week 70 of “Free Food Friday” and I thought I would share the story about how this fun game we play with the community even started. I posted a picture of a scavenger hunt winner with her new T-shirt to a local Facebook Group. Some wise guy commented “We don’t want T-shirts we want money.” My response, “Yeah me to buddy!” But this little interaction did plant a seed.  

Flash forwards a couple of weeks and Matt and I went to La Pergola and enjoyed a wonderful supper. We were talking with Pablo, one of the owners, and he offered us a gift card to La Pergola to give to one of our followers. It honestly took me a couple of months to figure out how to play a game to give away the gift card. The gift card hung on the wall in the office looking at me every day, taunting me. After spending most of my professional career in the financial services industry, I still find myself searching for equity and fairness when I approach any business transaction. Not a bad thing at all, I take pride in being fair and equitable, but it does sometimes take longer to make decisions. 

Ever since that wise guy made that comment on my T-shirt give away post, I had been thinking about how we can do more for the community. Something that will allow us to connect directly with the people who read our magazine and support our Facebook page, like the scavenger hunt we offer in the paper. Afterall all good deed should be acknowledged, and we appreciate you all supporting our little paper with a BIG VOICE.  

Then it came to me… 

We started conversations with the restaurants in the paper. We asked them if they could forgo any discounts we offer in exchange for being included in the game. Afterall when participating in the game they get a lot of extra exposure on our platform, and we had to keep the approach equitable for all our advertisers. We were ecstatic when most of the restaurants in the book were happy to join in the fun. We agreed to purchase gift cards in relation to the ad size participating restaurants purchased to be used for the game giveaway.  

Then Matt and I had to pull up our big people panties and get brave enough to hold Facebook lives, something we had previously said we probably would not do for fear of messing up our words (I tend to have a potty mouth and often slip). Well as you can see it did not take us long to get over that insecurity, lol.  

So, after a wise guy’s comment, a generous gift to the community from one of our valued advertisers, months of strategic thinking on my part, conversations with our restaurant advertisers that turned into partnerships, and some swallowing of our ego to do live video’s, FREE FOOD FRIDAY was born! From year to date we have been able to give community members who support our little paper with a BIG VOICE over $6000 worth of FREE FOOD to local restaurants. While it is not cash money, it’s the next best thing.  

Thinking about it today. Free Food Friday is more than a game. This is a movement that brings fun, excitement, anticipation and the spirit of giving to our community. Thank you for supporting this movement and being part of something that is about so much more than FREE FOOD!