Loaves and Fishes partners with Chick-fil-A to help feed community
COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – You may wonder what happens to all the leftover food at fast food restaurants at the end of the day.
Well, at Chick-fil-A Columbus, that food goes to feed others in the community through Loaves and Fishes of Columbus.
Director of marketing and leadership development, Jack King, said Chick-fil-A Columbus is all about community, education, and people.
“We want to reach people one piece of chicken at a time and spread joy while doing so,” King said.
Owner/operator Brittany Cofield decided there was a better purpose for the restaurant’s leftover food, and a partnership with Loaves and Fishes began.
Loaves and Fishes is a nonprofit organization that feeds the community six days a week.
Executive Director of Loaves and Fishes, Stephen Greenough, said that after some paperwork and applying to the Food Distribution Connection, they were able to establish a donor-recipient partnership.
He says this is one of the best things they have done in the soup kitchen.
“That food allows our churches to supplement the offerings that they use for our daily ministry,” Greenough said. “Without Chick-fil-A’s participation, we wouldn’t have those six days a week that we currently have. Because some of the churches would not be able to provide the necessary amount of food to give out to our neighbors.”
Greenough said the partnership began in 2022. In 2021, the non-profit served around 44,000 meals. And last year, they served 84,000 meals.
“On a weekly basis, probably about 20 to 30lbs of food is going to Loaves and Fishes at a minimum. And it varies with the season when people are traveling and we’re overcooking a little bit, during certain parts of the day, we’re saving a little bit more to give away,” King said.
“So we’ve basically doubled the amount of meals that we provide, and we’ve increased the days. So the fact that we can now use and rely on the Chick-fil-A food to give us that extra bump in food donations is such a wonderful thing,” Greenough said.
King says giving back to the community is extremely important to them.
“It’s something nutritional and that’s really important to keep people moving forward and alive,” Greenough said.
“We’re trying to reach people and spread the gospel and the joy of just being happy and hospitality through chicken one chicken sandwich at a time,” King said.
For more information on Loaves and Fishes or how you can help, you can reach Stephen Greenough at 602-770-3503.
King said there are other programs Chick-fil-A donates to – you can learn more and reach out to them on their website.
They are also working to fund the building of a water filtration system in Africa. Every cookie sale goes towards that project.
