Good-news stories to satisfy more than your appetite
For more than 70 years, the Cathy family has been serving people—and I don’t just mean serving chicken sandwiches. Chick-fil-A Founder Truett Cathy always maintained he was in the people business, and today that practice continues as restaurant Operators live out his legacy of putting people first.
Of course 1946, when Cathy opened his first diner, was a different time. The nation was emerging from the Second World War, and the “Greatest Generation” was busy building their own American dream. The landscape is a bit different in 2016. We live in a fast-paced, technology-driven society where news is delivered in real time to the palm of our hands.
“There is a growing appetite to rediscover and experience kindness, to connect and be a part of something.”
We feel the intensity of pace as much as anyone. Most of our customers are on the go, ordering their meals through the drive-thru and on our mobile app. We are constantly innovating to find a new way to serve people faster and in ways that are most convenient to this new way of life. But that’s not all we’ve discovered. We’ve also seen there is a growing appetite to rediscover and experience kindness, to connect and be a part of something. That’s the inspiration behind our new publication, The Chicken Wire.
Having spent a little more than two years working inside Chick-fil-A, I’ve witnessed scene after scene unfold where our restaurants become the setting for extraordinary acts of kindness. Whether it’s a team member breaking through the silence to connect with a deaf customer through sign language, an Operator giving his gloves to a homeless man, or a mother, after receiving a free ice cream for her son, opening up and telling his story of overcoming the odds—there are so many good stories to be told.
So we hope you will join us on this journey as we strive to tell more good-news stories centered around the people who invest in our communities, extend hospitality to others and who believe food is more than a meal, but a reason to be together. Because as Truett once said, “We live in a changing world, but we need to be reminded that the important things have not changed, and the important things will not change if we keep our priorities in proper order.”
Here’s to stories that satisfy more than just our appetites. There’s good happening all around us. With kindness,
Ashley Callahan
Editor-in-Chief, The Chicken Wire
