By Zanub Saeed
A small town in Alaska was treated to free tacos from Taco Bell after a hoax said the area was going to get a Taco Bell restaurant in it.
The town of Bethel, Al., where 6,200 live, only has a Subway restaurant available for residents in the city in terms of fast-food chains, and the next nearest franchise is well over 400 miles away in the city of Anchorage. Then, as part of two residents who were feuding with each other, said the Associated Press on Sunday, a flyer was created saying that a Taco Bell chain would open in Bethel.
However, it was a hoax, and there was no plan of a Taco Bell restaurant to be built in Bethel. Taco Bell got word of the hoax and the despair the town felt over not getting the chain that the company's executives set up an initiative to send free tacos, enough to feed 10,000, said the Associated Press, for free to Bethel.
"It'll be a big event for our community," Mayor Joe Klejka told the Associated Press.
Taco Bell, noted the Associated Press, will send over 950 pounds of seasoned beef, 300 pounds of lettuce, 150 pounds of cheddar cheese, 500 pounds of reduced fat sour cream and 300 pounds of tomatoes in order to make the tacos for the town.
"If we can feed people in Afghanistan and Iraq, we can feed people in Bethel," company CEO Greg Creed told the Associated Press, declining to discuss the cost of the feast.
The hoax flyer began to spread in June, which announced the supposed opening of the Taco Bell store, and listed a phone number to call if anyone was interested in employment at the chain, said the Associated Press. The number listed was actually that of one of the two people in the feud.
The nearest Taco Bell is in Anchorage, which would cost about $500 in travel fees for a round-trip flight from the city and back to Bethel, said the Associated Press.
"It's kind of an expensive taco," Sam Blankenship, who works for the city, told the Associated Press.
