The launch offer

Founding Cohort Rule

Ten food businesses in Horry and Georgetown counties, South Carolina, pay nothing for their first year with HCC. This page is the whole offer: who can claim a founding place, how places are ordered, what happens after year one, and when the offer ends.

Published Wednesday, November 4, 2026, at 6:00 p.m. Eastern time

Founding cohort

Applications open for every business at the same moment: Monday, November 30, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. Eastern. You can create an account and save a draft from Friday, November 20, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. Eastern.

Founding places remaining: 10 of 10

For food businesses in Horry or Georgetown County, South Carolina. Places go in the order applications are recorded as complete. This is a fee concession only: every founding place is checked against the same Standard as every other business.

The offer

The first ten complete applications from food businesses in Horry County or Georgetown County, South Carolina, received after Monday, November 30, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. Eastern time, pay nothing for their first year with Halal Community Council (HCC). They pay no application fee and no first-year dues, at whatever level they pass. If a founding place's check does not pass, the place goes to the next complete application in line.

This is a fee concession, and the only difference. The early HCC staff course (see below) is open to every business with a Pillar or Keystone application or check, not only to founding places. Every founding place is checked against the same Standard, in the same way, as every other business.

Who can apply

A business can claim a founding place if:

its location is in Horry County or Georgetown County, South Carolina (for a food truck or caterer, its kitchen or base is there and it serves in those counties);
it sells or serves food it describes as halal, or wants to;
it is open and operating on the day it applies; and
it is not excluded below.

One founding place per owner. If an owner has more than one location, only its first complete application counts toward the ten. Its other locations may apply at the published prices.

Who cannot claim a founding place

A business under HCC's never-seal rule (HCC Standard, 11.4): a business under the same ownership or control as HCC's member, including a business of the spouse or household of a person who owns HCC's member; a business owned or controlled by an HCC director, officer or committee member while that person serves; and any such business for 24 months after its tie ends. HCC never seals those businesses.
A business owned or controlled by an HCC employee, checker, second reviewer or the imam who reviews HCC files, or by a member of the immediate family of any of them or of an HCC director, officer or standards committee member.

These businesses can still learn about HCC, and anyone not under the first rule can apply at the published prices.

What "complete" means

An application is complete when HCC's application system has received all of these:

the application form, with every required field filled in;
the level the business is applying for: Cornerstone, Pillar or Keystone;
the HCC Check and Membership Agreement, accepted, including consent to publication of the record and consent to announced recording and photographs;
the business's real halal source for the items in scope: its supplier, its certifier, or both;
the documents the level asks for at application, uploaded: supplier invoices and certificates for the items in scope; and
a choice of visit window (or, for Cornerstone, a live video walkthrough window).

"Complete" means every item is there. It does not mean the documents are good enough to pass. That is decided in the check.

You may create an account and save a draft from Friday, November 20, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. Eastern time. The Submit button opens at the opening time. An application submitted before the opening time is not accepted.

Order and ties

Places go in the order HCC's application system records each application as complete, by its server clock, in Eastern time.
If two applications are recorded in the same second, the one with the earlier system sequence number goes first.
HCC does not accept applications by email, phone or in person in place of the system, so no one can skip the line. If you need help with the form, ask us, before or after the opening. We can help you prepare a draft. Help is given in the order it is asked for and never holds or reserves a place: your place still depends on when the system records your application as complete.
If the system is unavailable after the opening time, HCC posts a notice. Order is still decided by when complete applications are recorded.
HCC keeps recording complete applications in order after the first ten. If a founding place opens up (see below), it goes to the earliest complete application that is still open, does not hold a founding place and is not excluded.

What founding places pay

Year one: nothing. No $150 application fee and no first-year dues, at the level the place passes.
The free year starts on the day the place passes its check and runs for 12 months.
If a place passes a lower level than it applied for, its free year is at the level it passed.

The staff course before the Academy opens

At Pillar and Keystone, a business's staff take the HCC staff course, and the check counts their completion records (Standard OP-6). HCC Academy opens on January 15, 2027, after most founding checks. Before then, staff at any business with a Pillar or Keystone application or check under way or decided can take the HCC staff course early, once its review is finished and HCC opens it to them. So can staff at a business that holds a founding place, or whose application is in line for one. No other course opens early.

It is the same course, and the check counts it the same way: staff who finished it count, and staff who started within the last 30 days may still be in progress.

If the staff course is not open yet when a check is decided, before January 15, 2027, staff finish it by February 14, 2027, even staff who started more than 30 days before the check. The record shows the staff course as in progress, due that day, and that date stays even if the course opens later.

If a founding place does not pass

It pays nothing for that check, and it gets a written "not yet" list it can fix.
Its founding place goes to the next complete application in line. If that application has already paid, HCC refunds its application fee and dues within 10 days and treats it as a $0 founding application.
The business that did not pass keeps the one re-check every business gets within 60 days of a "not yet", with no application fee. If that re-check passes, it pays the published dues. After the 60 days, it may apply again at the published prices.
If a founding business withdraws, or does not make itself available for its visit within 21 days after HCC first offers visit times, its application closes. Its founding place goes to the next complete application in line. The business may apply again at the published prices.

At most fifteen free checks. Free checks go to the first fifteen complete applications in line at most. An application that cannot claim a founding place is not in line and does not count toward the fifteen. A founding place never passes to an application later than the fifteenth in line.

After the first year

HCC sends a renewal invoice 30 days before the anniversary. Nothing is ever charged automatically. To continue, the business pays the invoice in full.
Founding rates are locked. A founding place pays the dues published on the opening date, for as long as it renews without a gap: $500 a year for Cornerstone, $997 for Pillar, $1,997 for Keystone. If it moves to another level later, it pays that level's dues as published on the opening date.
A gap means any day the place is not currently verified, for any reason, including a renewal not paid by the good-through date. One exception: a lapse caused by HCC's own delay is not a gap (Check and Membership Agreement, 19.9). After a gap, the published prices of the day apply.
The renewal includes the year's re-check. If a re-check does not pass, the year's dues are refunded except for one month, as for every member.
The lock belongs to the business at that location. It does not pass to a new owner.

When the offer ends

The offer ends at the first of these: ten founding places have passed their checks; fifteen free checks have been done; or Friday, February 19, 2027, 11:59 p.m. Eastern time arrives. After it ends, no application moves into a founding place. HCC shows how many founding places remain on this page while the offer is open.

What the offer is not

It is not a different Standard, an easier check, a faster check or a promise of a pass.
It is not linked to anything else a business buys or has bought, from HCC or from anyone: no service, no perk, no directory listing and no advertising has any effect on who gets a founding place or in what order.
It is not a private arrangement. This page is the whole offer.

How we tell people

HCC published this rule on its website at 6:00 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, November 4, 2026, with the date and time it was published, and sends the one founding notice below at 10:00 a.m. Eastern time on Friday, November 20, 2026, ten days before the opening time.
One notice, released at one moment. HCC releases one notice text, all at once, at 10:00 a.m. Eastern time on Friday, November 20, 2026. At that moment HCC sends the notice by email to every business on its invitation list with a public email address, posts it on this page, and releases it to HCC's mail house, which prints it as a postcard on the next business day and mails it to every business on the list with a mailing address. A business with both gets both. An email arrives at once; a postcard takes a few days, and a few may arrive on the opening day. That is why the offer opens ten days after the notice goes out: so that mailed notices have time to arrive before the opening. No one gets early access to a founding place: the Submit button opens at the same moment for every business, the order is set by complete applications received after that moment, and nobody can apply before it. This rule went up on this website on Wednesday, November 4, 2026, which is before the notice goes out, so a business that found the website early has had longer to get ready. It has had no longer to apply, and drafts can be saved by anyone from Friday, November 20, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. Eastern time.
Who is on the list. The list covers every food business in Horry and Georgetown counties that HCC can identify from any public source, including South Carolina food permit records and map listings. A directory's listings may be one source, never the only one. HCC never selects or orders invitees by listing, placement or advertising status on any directory. Most mailing addresses come from state food permit records or map listings; some are approximate, looked up from a map location. HCC marks those as approximate, and the mail house's address check runs on every address before printing. An address the check cannot confirm is still mailed. Some businesses on the list have no mailing address or public email that HCC could find. They are told only through this page, and HCC logs them as "website only". Every invitation comes from HCC alone.
The log. For each invitation, HCC logs the channel (postcard, email, both, or website only), the source of the address, whether the address is exact or approximate, the time it was released, and the mail house's job ID. Returned cards and bounced emails are logged with their dates.
After the offer ends, HCC publishes the list of founding places and the order in which their applications were completed.
Each founding place's record carries this line during its free year: "Founding place: paid no HCC fees for its first year under HCC's published launch offer."

The founding notice

This is the notice HCC releases at 10:00 a.m. Eastern time on Friday, November 20, 2026, word for word: by postcard to every business on the list with a mailing address, by email to every business with a public email address, and here.

Front of the card

Halal Community Council

Founding offer

The first ten pay nothing for their first year.

For the first ten complete applications. The free year starts only if your place passes its check. Ends February 19, 2027, 11:59 p.m. Eastern, or sooner. Terms on the back.

For restaurants, markets and other food businesses in Horry and Georgetown counties, South Carolina.

Applications open Monday, November 30, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. Eastern.

halalcommunitycouncil.com/founding

Back of the card

Halal Community Council is a South Carolina nonprofit. We check what restaurants and markets tell Muslim customers about their halal food, and publish what we found.

The offer: the first ten complete applications after the opening time pay no application fee or dues for their first year, starting when the place passes its check. A place that does not pass, or is not available for a visit within 21 days, goes to the next applicant in line. Published prices: $150 per location to apply, plus yearly dues from $500. Renewing after year one is your choice, at your level's dues; no automatic charges. One founding place per owner; other locations pay published prices. The offer ends February 19, 2027, 11:59 p.m. Eastern, or sooner once ten places pass or fifteen free checks are done.

Who qualifies: an open food business in Horry or Georgetown County that sells food it calls halal, or wants to. Not open to businesses owned or controlled by HCC's member or its owners, by people who run or work for HCC, or by their immediate families.

Sent at the same moment to every business on our list we could reach by mail or email. Full rule: halalcommunitycouncil.com/founding

Questions: [email protected]

The founding letter

The long version of the notice, with the same offer. HCC sends a copy to any business that asks for it.

Friday, November 20, 2026

Assalamu alaikum,

Halal Community Council opens applications at 10:00 a.m. Eastern time on Monday, November 30, 2026, and we would like you to be one of the first ten places we check. We published the rule for our founding offer on Wednesday, November 4, 2026, and we are sending this notice to every business on our list that we could reach by mail or email at 10:00 a.m. Eastern time on Friday, November 20, 2026. Applications open ten days after the notice so that mailed ones have time to arrive. Applications open for every business at the same moment.

Who we are

Halal Community Council is being formed as a nonprofit corporation in South Carolina. We check what a restaurant or market tells its Muslim customers about its halal food, and we publish what we found, in plain words. We do not tell anyone what is halal. We tell the public what we looked at, how we know it, and what we did not look at.

The offer

The first ten complete applications from Horry County and Georgetown County, South Carolina, received after 10:00 a.m. Eastern time on Monday, November 30, 2026, pay nothing for the first year. That is the published rule, and it is written in full on this page. The offer closes at 11:59 p.m. Eastern time on Friday, February 19, 2027, or sooner once ten places have passed or fifteen free checks have been done. There is no hidden fee. The free year starts on the day your place passes its check and runs for 12 months. After the first year you renew at your level's dues, and that rate stays locked for as long as you renew without a gap. The locked rate does not pass to a new owner.

Our published prices, which every other applicant pays, are an application fee of $150 per location plus the first year's dues. In the founding group you would pay neither for year one.

To take a founding place, a business must be located in Horry County or Georgetown County (for a food truck or caterer, its kitchen or base is there and it serves in those counties), be open and operating on the day it applies, and sell or serve food it describes as halal, or want to. An application is complete when HCC's application system has the form with every required field, the level, the accepted Check and Membership Agreement, the business's real halal source, the documents the level asks for, and a choice of visit window.

If a founding applicant's check does not pass, or the business withdraws, or it does not make itself available for its visit within 21 days after we first offer visit times, its place goes to the next complete application. Free checks go to the first fifteen complete applications at most. One founding place per owner; an owner's other locations may apply at the published prices.

These businesses cannot take a founding place: a business under the same ownership or control as HCC's member, including a business of the spouse or household of a person who owns HCC's member; a business owned or controlled by an HCC director, officer or committee member while that person serves, and for 24 months after; and a business owned or controlled by an HCC employee, checker, second reviewer or the imam who reviews HCC files, or by a member of the immediate family of any of them or of an HCC director, officer or standards committee member. The full rule is above on this page.

You would still go through the same check as everyone. Being among the first ten does not make the check easier.

Three levels

You choose the level. Each has a published scope, so your customers can see what it means.

Cornerstone. We review your supplier invoices and certificates for the items in scope. We visit once, in person or by live video walkthrough. We put five short questions to your staff, the ones a customer might ask at the counter. Dues after the founding year: $500.

Pillar. Everything in Cornerstone, and more. Every item you call halal that has meat, poultry, gelatin or animal fat is traced to a certified source. We observe in person how halal and non-halal items are kept apart. Your staff take the HCC staff course, included in your dues. Dues after the founding year: $997.

Keystone. Everything in Pillar, and more. Two unannounced visits a year. An imam reviews your file. We watch every supplier certificate monthly. You sign a sworn statement of every source. Dues after the founding year: $1,997.

If you also serve pork or other non-halal items, you can still reach any level. At every level we visit in person, at no extra cost, to check that your halal items have their own storage, prep space, cooking surfaces, frying oil and utensils, and that every non-halal item is clearly labeled as non-halal. Your record says plainly which non-halal items you serve, for example: "Non-halal items served: yes, pork. Separate storage, prep and frying observed."

A check lasts 12 months.

What a check involves

You apply on our website. You tell us which level, which location, and what is in scope.
You send the documents we ask for: supplier invoices, supplier certificates, and a short list of your menu items.
We visit, once for Cornerstone and in person for Pillar and Keystone. If a Cornerstone video walkthrough is not enough, the in-person visit is included in your dues. We tell you the day and time ahead for the first visit. Keystone also includes two visits we do not announce.
A second person reads the whole file before anything is published. Where possible an imam joins, and always for Keystone.
We decide within 10 business days of the last visit. You see the result three business days before it is published, and you can answer any question and correct any mistake before it is public.

Every recording is announced to you. Your first visit is scheduled with you. Keystone also includes two visits we do not announce. We never record without telling you, and we ask for your consent in the application.

What we publish

We publish dated facts about your place, and for each one, how we know it. We saw the document. We observed it on a visit. Or you told us, and we report it as your statement. We also publish what is covered and what is not.

If you pass, your place shows as Verified at your level. If your place does not pass at the level you chose but does pass a lower level, you are offered the lower level. A failed first check gets no public record. A place that is no longer verified is shown only as "Not currently verified," and only for a neutral reason: renewal not completed, closed or moved, or withdrawn after notice and appeal. That line stays up for 12 months, then comes down. We give notice and a chance to appeal before any withdrawal.

We will never say your food "is halal" in our own voice. We say what we checked. We ask you to name your real halal source, the supplier or the certifier, and we report it as you named it.

If you ever pay

The founding ten pay nothing in year one. After that, renewal comes by invoice thirty days before your anniversary. We never charge a card automatically. The renewal includes that year's re-check. If you pay for a level and the check does not pass, we refund the dues within ten days and keep the $150 application fee. After a "not yet," one re-check within 60 days is free. After that, a new application needs a new $150 application fee. If a lower level passes, we refund the difference, or you may decline the lower level and take back all of your dues. We keep the $150 either way.

Nothing about the check can be bought. The same price applies to members and non-members for any service we offer, and what you buy never changes a result.

How to apply

Apply at halalcommunitycouncil.com/apply, or write to us and we will help you start. You can save your application and finish it later. You will need your business name and address, your menu, and the names of your main suppliers.

There is no pressure. Only the first ten complete applications receive the founding offer, and the offer closes at 11:59 p.m. Eastern time on Friday, February 19, 2027, or sooner once its places are filled. If you would like to talk first, or want help preparing your application, before or after the opening, use our contact form or write to [email protected]. We are glad to sit down with you and explain anything in more detail. If the timing is not right, we understand, and we thank you for reading.

Jazakum Allahu khayran,

Halal Community Council

Changes

HCC will not change this rule after it is published, except to fix an obvious typo. Any fix is dated on this page and never changes anyone's place in line.

Corrected Wednesday, November 4, 2026. This rule was written when HCC planned to publish it and send its notice at the same moment, and it said so in four places. HCC decided to publish the rule earlier, on Wednesday, November 4, 2026, while the notice still goes out at 10:00 a.m. Eastern time on Friday, November 20, 2026. The four sentences that described one moment now name the right one of the two: the publication date at the top and under "How we tell people", the sentence introducing the notice, and the sentence about early access, which now says plainly that a business which found this website early has had longer to get ready. Nothing about who may apply, the order, the prices, the opening time of Monday, November 30, 2026, or the closing time has changed, and nobody had a place in line on this date.