Tulsa Restaurant Owner Feeds Needy Customers For Free On Thanksgiving

Frank's Cafe is serving up a Thanksgiving buffet and waiving the bill for the needy.

The owner, Frank Al Chami, said they've been giving out holiday meals to the homeless for nearly 30 years.

"And a lot of them I can see, you know some of them say, ‘We haven't ate in a couple days,'" Al Chami said. "There is no feeling equal to this feeling, when you do that every year. This is the best feeling I ever have."

Frank started the free Thanksgiving Day dinner 28 years ago, but he took off several holidays before the recession hit. Then, he said, many of his customers lost their jobs.

He said the only thing to do, the right thing to do was open his doors for a free meal on Thanksgiving Day.

"It's very important to pay (customers) back because they helped me raise my kids. I got six kids and they been supporting me for … years. I got to be there for when they need me, too," Frank told us in 2009.

In 2012, the cafe had its biggest Thanksgiving crowd ever, with more than 400 meals served.

Frank's, located at 54th and Mingo, is sharing the feast from 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. on Thursday.