For Enrique Baca of Texas, being an Operator is about impacting others
Enrique Baca was nervous as he boarded an airplane. The 20-year-old was afraid of heights, but excited about what was to come.
It was 2016. Baca, a Chick-fil-A® restaurant Team Member from Laredo, Texas, was traveling to Atlanta to enter the restaurant chain’s Leadership Development Program. He was leaving behind his hometown and entering a pipeline that would dispatch him to several cities over the next two years in support of various Chick-fil-A restaurant openings.
“I thought, ‘What am I getting myself into?’” he recalled.
Charting a new path
It was on that first plane ride that Baca’s life truly changed. “The most I had seen of the world was South Texas,” he said. “Chick-fil-A gave me the opportunity to see so much more.”
In the next 18 months, Baca would travel to Chicago; Oklahoma City; Stillwater, Okla.; Long Beach, Calif.; Houston; Santa Fe, N.M.; and San Antonio. Fast-forward to 2018, and Baca, at 24, became one of the youngest Chick-fil-A Operators in the company, at Chick-fil-A Cielo Vista Mall, in El Paso, Texas.
When he was selected to become an Operator, “I bought a car, filled it with everything I owned, drove to El Paso and started my new life,” he said.
Another first-time flight
Baca didn’t know it back then, but his maiden airplane voyage would put him in a position to impact the life of another person.
Like Baca, Rene Contreras was nervous as he boarded an airplane for the first time. The 23-year-old was afraid of heights, but excited about what was to come.
It was 2019. Contreras was traveling from El Paso to Guatemala. “I was so excited to travel, let alone fly,” Contreras recalled.
Contreras was an assistant manager at Baca’s El Paso restaurant. Baca invited Contreras to join him on a trip to Guatemala to tour the farms that supply THRIVE Farmers® coffee, which supplies Chick-fil-A with its entire stock of java.
Just a year beforehand and before beginning work at Chick-fil-A, Contreras says he was struggling financially and emotionally, toiling in two jobs and caring for an infant son. One day, Baca walked into a steakhouse where Contreras was waiting tables. The two got to talking. Baca was impressed by the young waiter’s charisma. Weeks away from his restaurant’s grand opening, he offered Contreras a job on the spot.
Contreras reminded Baca of himself: a border-town Texan with a strong work ethic who had never left home despite ambitions to travel the world.
A year later, when Baca was tapped to travel to Guatemala on behalf of Chick-fil-A, he asked Contreras to join him.
“I knew this would be a life-changing trip for Rene,” said Baca. “He’s a great storyteller. This was an opportunity for him to bring back the stories of another community and share them with his own.”
Impact beyond the restaurant
During the trip, Baca and Contreras met the farmers who harvest THRIVE Farmers Coffee. Chick-fil-A launched its partnership with THRIVE Farmers Coffee in 2014. Ever since, THRIVE Farmers have sourced coffee directly from individual farmers to supply Chick-fil-A proprietary blends.
“We learned how Chick-fil-A impacts more than customers, but an entire community of coffee farmers,” recalled Baca. He noted that the values espoused by the farmers mirrored those of Chick-fil-A founder Truett Cathy. “They talked about being good stewards and managing resources that were entrusted to them. That was aligned with Truett’s principles.”
The experience was emotional for Contreras, who shed a few tears, moved by the kindness and tenacity of the farmers. He later celebrated his 24th birthday overlooking the Guatemalan mountains with a group of villagers. Baca surprised him with a cake. The trip, he said, “was one of the biggest highlights of my life.”
Recently promoted to director of operations, Contreras credits Baca for turning his life around.
“He gave me a job that allowed me to take care of my son, and then he gave me that airplane ticket,” Contreras said. “Having a mentor like Enrique to guide me has been such a privilege.”
For Baca, being a mentor is something he takes pride in, and he cherishes the way he’s able to invest in his Team Members’ lives.
“I am no one without my Team Members,” he said. “They inspire me every day.”
