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A New Orleans Woman is Giving Out $1000 Tips

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Anyone who waits tables for a living holds out hope that they will someday be the lucky recipient of an extraordinarily large tip. The “Tip the Bill Challenge” from a couple of years ago went viral when generous customers started leaving 100% tips and then grateful servers posted photos off those tips online. Now, a woman in New Orleans is doing her part to bestow generosity upon waiters and waitress with a tip that could possibly change their lives.

Keyondra New, who has been furloughed from her job as casino banker since March, needed to find something to make her feel joy again after losing a close friend to COVID. She was inspired by someone she saw on Instagram who was leaving big tips for servers and Keyondra knew this would make her happy so she decided to do the same thing. Within one week, she had a Cash App account and started asking for donations that she could use to tip a server. Each Monday, she takes herself out to dinner and gives her server a tip that is made up of donations she has collected the previous week. She then posts these exchanges on her Instagram account.

“It’s not selfless,” she says. It gives me joy and giving back to people comforts me.”

Her first giveaway was on September 7th when she tipped her server the $507 she had collected from donations. A week later, she gave away $1000. And then on Monday, September 21st, she had $800 to give to an incredulous server who could only repeatedly say “are you serious?” through tears of joy and appreciation.

Keyondra wants it to be known that she she pays for the meals herself even though she is currently out of work herself. “I was affected in a major way, right? God has been covering me, so other people probably didn’t have the same covering or the same help. So I wanted to find a way to help,” she says.

Watching the videos, it’s obvious that Keyondra enjoys making other people happy. Several times, she herself wipes away tears of joy. When asked what she would do if a waiter or waitress didn’t give her great service when she was prepared to tip them hundreds of dollars, she had already considered that. “I would still tip them. They could be having a bad day and you don’t know what they’re going through.” However, she did point out that if the service was really bad or outright rude, she might turn her attention to another server in the restaurant that she had observed treating customers with kindness.

As donations increase, Keyondra has decided to cap the weekly amount to $1000 and let any additional money rollover into the next week, allowing her to continue doling out the tips for even longer. “Or maybe I’ll raise the cap and tip two servers at the same restaurant.”

If you’re a server in New Orleans, maybe you’ll be the next person “blessed” by Keyondra. And if you’re someone who wants to help Keyondra help others, you can donate via Cash App: $tipaserver. At the very least, you should give her a follow on Instagram @tipaserver. This is a difficult time for all of us right now and just seeing someone spread joy like Keyondra New is doing will definitely make your day a little bit brighter.

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Bitchy Waiter

Bitchy Waiter

Darron Cardosa is a writer, actor, singer, and waiter. He lives and and works in New York City and enjoys "The Brady Bunch," "The Facts of Life" and cocktails almost as much as he hates your baby.