Eastern Iowa Restaurant Receives ALL of Donor's Stimulus Check

As Luke Bryan sings in his hit song "Most People Are Good," 'I believe this world ain't half as bad as it looks... I believe most people are good.' I love that song's message and it fits perfectly with this story.

Herb and Lou's Pizza in downtown West Branch has a storied history, dating back more than 30 years to 1988. No other restaurant in the city's downtown has been around that long, according to the Iowa City Press-Citizen. An area resident did their part to assure it's not going anywhere, as are all of the longtime businesses' customers.

Owner Teri Hazelwood received what she thought was a thank you letter recently. Instead, she found a check inside. A check for $1200. The total amount of money most Americans received as part of the economic stimulus as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hazelwood said the anonymous donor still had their job and wanted to help others. She revealed more of what the letter said to KCRG,

They mentioned they would hate to lose us and that just meant the world to all of us here... We really are all in this together. It has meant the world to us.

Hazelwood says other checks have followed and I'm not surprised. Last Monday, April 27, when Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds announced businesses, including restaurants, in 77 of Iowa's 99 counties could reopen on May 1, Herb N' Lou's decided to continue on their current path:

The bar at Herb N' Lou's Pizza remains closed, but those who normally tend bar are now the restaurant's delivery drivers. Despite business being down 50 percent overall because of the lack of the bar, Hazelwood hasn't laid anyone off.

As I said in the beginning, most people are good. In this story, there's a lot of those people.