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Best New Restaurant.  Best Burgers in the South.  Best Burgers of All Time.  And now, Best at Spreading LUV!  Renowned Al’s Burger Shack is teaming up with Dr Linnea Smith, Louise Coggins, and Lift Up the Vulnerable (LUV) every Tuesday through September with a LUV Burger: burger, Muenster cheese, lettuce, tomato, fennel onion jam.

A LUV Burger is more than just a taste sensation; with every delicious purchase a portion of the proceeds will help Lift Up the Vulnerable end human trafficking in warzones.

Lift Up the Vulnerable is a non-profit that lifts up vulnerable children and women at risk to human trafficking and oppression in the warzones of Sudan and South Sudan.

Chapel Hill’s own psychiatrist and activist Dr Linnea Smith serves on the board of directors of LUV and approached Al and Melody Bowers (owners of Al’s Burger Shack) during the Orange County Rape Crisis Fundraiser.  Out of their mutual commitment for protecting the most vulnerable in our world today—both locally and globally—the LUV Burger was launched!

According to the Department of Defense, human trafficking is a crime in which force, fraud or coercion is used to compel a person to perform labor, services or commercial sex. It affects all populations: adults, children, men, women, foreign nationals and U.S. citizens, and all economic classes.

LUV describes human trafficking as the exploitation of vulnerability. “Trafficking” by the very nature of the word reflects movement. Therefore, human trafficking is the movement of a person’s vulnerability towards the exploitation of that vulnerability.  Poverty is an obvious vulnerability—but not all poor people are exploited. It’s Poverty+ that creates a perfect storm contributing to the vulnerable being most at-risk:  Poverty+ orphan-hood; poverty+ civil unrest/war; poverty+ cultural issues; poverty+ lack of education.

LUV works with children and women specifically in Sudan and South Sudan where extreme poverty+ is the norm. The work before them is difficult. Last year, South Sudan was listed as one of the most deadly places to deliver aid.  LUV supports an indigenously directed anti-trafficking network that offers intervention, rescue and aftercare for the most vulnerable in their communities.  Together, they provide food, housing, education, security, employment, community development, medical and spiritual care. These important resources are key components to addressing vulnerabilities and ending exploitation and trafficking. Learn more at: https://liftupthevulnerable.org/

Spread, Share… and Eat Some LUV!  LUV Burgers available every Tuesday at all three Al’s Burger Shack Chapel Hill Locations: https://www.alsburgershack.com/locations