Deep Run Roadhouse hosting Charity Night for fare-free transit

Thursday’s lunch run can help somebody else get to work. On August 20, Deep Run Roadhouse is hosting a Charity Night benefiting the Transit Access Partnership (TAP), the community fundraising effort that helps keep GRTC buses fare-free across the Richmond region.

Despite the name, the “night” runs all day. The fundraiser goes from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., which happens to be the West End barbecue spot’s full operating hours. The mechanics couldn’t be simpler: dine in or order for pickup, hang onto your receipt, and drop it in the TAP donation box by the register before the end of the night. Deep Run Roadhouse will donate 15% of the value of every receipt that lands in the box.

GRTC stopped charging fares in March 2020, originally as a pandemic safety measure, and riders haven’t paid at the farebox since. Keeping it that way costs money, which is where TAP comes in. The partnership launched in 2023 to bring businesses and individual donors into the effort, and it breaks the math down into concrete terms: $3.50 covers a day of transit for one rider, $17.50 covers a week, and $60 covers a full month.

Those rides connect people across the region to jobs, school, healthcare, and other essentials, so the receipt you’d normally crumple into a cup holder does some real work here. Can’t make it Thursday? TAP accepts donations online year-round, and questions can go to [email protected]. But if brisket was already on your radar this week, the timing works out nicely.