As the town of Sugar Land, Texas began to flood, Chick-fil-A Team Members jumped into action.
No one predicted the intensity of the storm. In just four hours, 12 inches of rain fell on Sugar Land, Texas, and the nearby Brazos River quickly flooded neighborhoods. Drivers searched for higher ground, but came up short, the impassable roads leaving many stranded in their vehicles for hours.
As they saw the town outside overcome with distress from the downpour, the Team Members at two Sugar Land Chick-fil-A restaurants jumped into action. They posted on the restaurants’ social media pages, inviting anyone in need of dry and safe shelter to come to the restaurants to wait out the storm.
As the news spread, panicked residents and families poured in to Chick-fil-A Rosenberg and Chick-fil-A Greatwood, filling each restaurant almost to capacity. They were greeted with dry towels, hot THRIVE Farmers coffee, free Chick-fil-A® Chicken Sandwiches and friendly faces that encouraged them to make themselves at home.
“It quickly became clear that we weren’t going anywhere soon, but it was fantastic to ride out the storm in such a cheerful and welcoming atmosphere,” said local resident Joe Sanders, who was there with his family.
Children happily watched the movies that played on the restaurants’ TV screens, while parents made calls to let family and friends know they were safe. It wasn’t long before the overwhelming sense of distress that first filled each restaurant was replaced by a collective feeling of relief.
“It was a comfort to know that for however long we needed to camp out at the restaurant, these Team Members were working hard to make a difficult situation a little brighter and more tolerable for us,” Sanders said.
Quart Graves, the local franchise owner of both restaurants, says that the relief efforts were completely spearheaded by his Team Members, who refused to close the restaurants until the last guest had a safe place to spend the rest of the night.
“I’m really proud of my team,” said Graves. “This was all their idea – they wanted to help their community in a time of need, and that’s exactly what they did.”
