HAMPTON, Va. — Bowman’s Soul-N-The-Wall restaurant in Hampton hosted a community meal giveaway on Christmas Day.
It not only provided meals for first responders and the community but also giveaways of things like toys and coats for people in need.
“It's just a time of year to be giving,” said Randy Bowman, the restaurant’s owner. “People [who] don’t have family, you can come here because when you walk through those front doors, you are family.”
This is the second year in a row the restaurant has hosted the event. In 2023, it was even bigger than last year, serving almost three times as many meals, from 150 to 400.
“We’ve been working hard since 12 o’clock yesterday. We worked around the clock, just putting it all together,” Bowman said. “we’ve been rocking and rolling making sure everybody has a Merry Christmas that walks through that front door.”
Volunteers like Air Force veteran Maria Webb stepped up to help.
“My whole concept is to give back to the community any way I can,” Webb said. “If I can’t personally do that. Then I try to involve myself with other programs like Mr. Bowman has here that we try to together as a community and try to give back.”
Meals were provided for the 65 firefighters and 95 police officers on duty in Hampton on Christmas Day.
“It gives us an opportunity to know we are appreciated,” said Jimmie Wideman, chief of the Hampton Police Division. ‘We’re a 24/7 operation. We are men and women that are going to spend their day providing public safety services to the community. That goes without break or pause.”
U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., also stopped by to offer his support.
“We just take a lot of things for granted, if something happens on Christmas Day, we expect the first responders to be there,” Scott said. We forget that we have families too. So supporting them on their day is something special.”
Bowman said the restaurant’s staff and volunteers took the meals that were left over from the event and distributed them to the homeless in the company.
