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Nearly 2,000 Chick-fil-A restaurants have united to donate millions of meals since 2012.
Hunger relief organizations are essential for filling the gaps faced by food-insecure individuals. Sometimes, donations come from those favorite restaurants sharing surplus ingredients. This means good food doesn’t go to waste, and people who need it most get a meal.
Chick-fil-A is one company that has made it their business to help the local Owner-Operators of Chick-fil-A restaurants donate extra food. By engaging in the Chick-fil-A
Shared Table program, local Owner-Operators can connect with local nonprofits that give meals to food-insecure people in their communities. These nonprofits incorporate extra chicken filets, nuggets, waffle fries, biscuits, salads, fruit and more into balanced meals that are as delicious as they are nourishing.
Chick-fil-A Shared Table
helps local restaurants
fight food insecurity
When diners get a quick meal from their favorite restaurant, they usually don't think about how lucky they are. But for many people in the U.S. and Canada who don't know when they'll eat next, getting food is not always easy.
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The USDA’s annual Household Food Security in the United States report found that in 2021, 10.2% of U.S. households went hungry at some time during the year. That’s a total of 13.5 million households across the country.
Of all the households in the U.S. with children, 12.5% experienced food insecurity in 2021, whether that was only the adults in the home who were food insecure — or both the adults and children.
It’s also important to note that food insecurity disproportionately affects people of color. Black and Hispanic-identifying households saw the highest levels of food insecurity between 2001 and 2021, the USDA reported.
One piece of the solution to food insecurity is close to home: wasted food. In the U.S., 30-40% of the country’s food supply is estimated to go to waste. Food waste can occur at any point on the journey from field to plate, whether food gets blemished during transportation, or a consumer throws out extra food.
Even though Chick-fil-A restaurants typically cook food to order, having extra is inevitable. Chick-fil-A Shared Table helps restaurants donate their excess food to nonprofit organizations. In 2022 alone, Chick-fil-A diverted more than 13.9 million pounds of restaurant food waste from landfills through food donation and other sustainability efforts.
Learn more about Chick-fil-A Shared Table and view the entire cookbook at extrahelpings.com
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By: Anna Hider, for Chick-fil-A, Inc.
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How
Chick-fil-A
Shared Table
works
The concept is simple. Chick-fil-A Team Members pack up excess food and partnering local organizations pick up the food at an arranged time.
Below, representatives from two nonprofits that engage in
Chick-fil-A Shared Table share the impact these donations have.
Where it all began
Chick-fil-A Shared Table is facilitated by Chick-fil-A, Inc. at the corporate level, but the concept comes to life through local Chick-fil-A
restaurants, which is where the program originally started.
When Marshall Wilkins of Knoxville, Tenn., began working as a Chick-fil-A local Owner-Operator in the 1980s, he noticed that perfectly good surplus food was going to waste. He asked a local nonprofit organization if they could use the extra food, and they agreed. This planted the seed for what would grow to become Chick-fil-A Shared Table.
During the 1990s, Wilkins hired a trio of siblings whose father worked for the Food Donation Connection (FDC), an organization that links food service donors to local hunger relief organizations. Wilkins connected Chick-fil-A to the FDC, so
Chick-fil-A restaurants across the country could work together with local charities to give away extra food to help feed those in need.
In 2012, Chick-fil-A, Inc. made it an official corporate social responsibility program, naming it Chick-fil-A
Shared Table.
Food insecurity across the U.S.
Extra chicken nuggets and fruit cups may not seem like much, but they make a huge difference to those struggling with food insecurity.
A food-insecure household is ...
... uncertain of having, or unable to acquire, at some time during the year, enough food to meet the needs of all their members because they had insufficient money or other resources for food.”
- U.S. Department of Agriculture
Food waste across the U.S.
up to
40%
of the country’s food supply goes to waste
Chick-fil-A Shared Table by the numbers
Food insecurity and food waste are global problems. Programs, such as Chick-fil-A Shared Table, work at the local level to make a huge impact — the numbers show just how powerful it is when hundreds of local Owner-Operators elect to join a cause.
Get inspired
Chick-fil-A is helping everyone learn how to reuse their own extra food in the spirit of the Chick-fil-A Shared Table program with a brand new digital cookbook. These recipes, inspired by the nonprofits participating in its food donation program, incorporate extra nuggets, waffle fries, fruit, biscuits and more into meals that everyone will love.
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Story from
1980s
1990s
2012
12.5%
of U.S. households with children have food insecurity
10.2%
of U.S. households have food insecurity
Highest Levels
Black and Hispanic-identifying households
Chicken Egg Breakfast Casserole
Chicken Nugget
Fried Rice
Chicken Nachos
Strawberry Peach Shortcake Ice Cream Sandwich
Select an organization to learn more
View Recipe
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Project Understanding
Boca Helping Hands
Project Understanding, an organization that provides resources to at-risk residents in Ventura, California, has participated in Chick-fil-A
Shared Table since 2017. Jann Huling, chief operating officer, shed light on the impact the program has had.
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Boca Helping Hands became part of Chick-fil-A Shared Table in 2017, and now receives donations from three Chick-fil-A restaurants in the Boca Raton area. Bill Harper, senior director of operations, spoke about how this partnership has helped the organization grow.
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Benefits
People’s Reactions
Boca’s Mission
Impact
People’s Reactions
How has the donated food you’ve received from your local Chick-fil-A restaurant benefitted your organization?
In 2017, we fed 300 people a month. In July 2023, we served 4,480 people in need. Throughout 2022 in Ventura County, we had the opportunity to serve more than 260,000 food insecure individuals in our community. The growth of impact is incredible! Donations from restaurants like
Chick-fil-A help us scale to meet the growing need in our area.
What reaction do you get from people when they find out they’re having a meal made with ingredients provided by Chick-fil-A?
Project Understanding supplies the recipes, and our clients are often excited when we offer ideas of how to cook items in new and different ways, using Chick-fil-A ingredients. Some of them get creative and we enjoy that.
What is your organization’s mission? How does Chick-fil-A support it?
Boca Helping Hands provides food, job training, access to health care and financial assistance to help individuals and families improve their quality of life and build financial stability. Our primary focus is still food, and the donations from Chick-fil-A have helped us redirect some spending to grow our education, financial assistance and medical programs.
What kind of impact do these food donations have?
The need in our community has increased dramatically since COVID. We can feed more people while having to purchase less food through wholesalers.
What reaction do you get from people when they find out they’re having a meal made with ingredients provided by Chick-fil-A?
People in our area are big fans of Chick-fil-A. We always get smiles and positive reactions when they know the food is from Chick-fil-A.
Shared Table continues to expand, with nearly 2,000 participating Chick-Fil-A restaurants providing food to 1,200 partnering nonprofits. It remains popular with local Owner-Operators and restaurant team members, who appreciate the chance to give back to their local communities.
2023
In 2012, Chick-fil-A, Inc. made it an official corporate social responsibility program, naming it Chick-fil-A Shared Table. It continues to expand and remains popular with Owner-Operators and restaurant team members, who appreciate the chance to give back to their local communities.
2012
