CLEVELAND, Ohio – Brandon Chrostowski, founder and head chef of EDWINS Leadership Restaurant and Institute, is fed up with escalating gun violence in Cleveland and wants to do something about it. That’s why he is giving a $250 credit for each gun turned into an Edwins establishment. This credit can be used at all EDWINS establishments including the restaurant, bakery and butcher shop.
The guns will be collected anonymously, unloaded and stored in a locked safe. They will be turned in to Cleveland Police Department’s 4th precinct headquarters every day. The goal is to get 100 guns off the streets of Cleveland by the end of July.
“Gun violence in our backyard is out of control. Just over Memorial Day weekend, 23 people were shot in Cleveland and two of the victims died,” says Chrostowski. “As a society, we have to do better, and all do our part to protect everyone’s children. It doesn’t matter if a person is 5 or 45, they’re still someone’s child. We have to take action to make the violence stop. My hope for accepting guns as currency is that other businesses follow suit in an effort to clean up our streets and protect our people.”
“This program has to work. We cannot fail and will do whatever is needed to save lives and get guns off our streets,” he says. “Let’s make Cleveland the model for how to do this.
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