Thanks to a major franchisee of Andy’s Frozen Custard, thousands of families will be fed through a partnership with GiftAMeal across 16 locations.

For GiftAMeal – whose app rewards restaurant customers for taking photos by making meal donations in their name – the partnership signals a shift in focus toward growing alongside increasingly large and established food brands, and follows early success in the quick-service sector with multi-market contenders such as Lion’s Choice. Over 800,000 meals have been provided by GiftAMeal to date.

The program is a natural fit for Andy’s Frozen Custard, whose participating locations include all those in North Carolina, the Greater St. Louis region, Osage Beach, and Columbia, MO.

For 35 years, Andy’s has been committed to making childhoods filled with wonderful memories, both in-store and out. With a special focus on supporting children’s education, the brand is already well-loved by local schools, providing countless fundraising opportunities and even free in-school frozen treats for hundreds of thousands of kids on the last day of school every year.

And now, through mere photos of custard, children around the country will be receiving something equally sweet – the assurance of a going to school with a full stomach, as each photo taken on the GiftAMeal app provides 1 meal (1.2lbs of healthy groceries) to a community member in need.

“We are ecstatic about this partnership with GiftAMeal,” says the local Andy’s franchise marketing manager, Carolyn Handtke. “Our franchise locations of Andy’s Frozen Custard are notorious for local community involvement and joining with GiftAMeal was a perfect fit for us. Offering our customers the opportunity to give back to their friends and neighbors by simply sharing photos of their treats coincides with our mission and values, and was a simple way to make an impact locally.”

The program is free to diners at participating locations and no purchase is necessary