The beauty of a handheld product like a Chick’nCone, explains CEO and co-founder Jonathan Almanzar, is that the fast craft chicken-and-waffle-cone creation leaves one arm free to change the world.
How? Starting April 1, that other arm can have a phone in-hand to snap a photo of the highly-Instagrammable item to feed someone in need locally.
Customers simply download the free GiftAMeal app, select their Chick’nCone location, and take a photo of their purchase. Chick’nCone then donates to a local food bank near that customer to fund 1 meal’s worth of healthy groceries getting to a neighborhood pantry.
Customers can also multiply their impact to provide up to 4 meals, all at no cost to them. After taking their GiftAMeal photo, they are asked if they would like to share their photo on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter – and each platform share gives an extra meal.
The program is available at all 17 Chick’nCone locations in the US and donations will benefit over a dozen regional food banks. With 58 more locations in various stages of development, the impact will continue to grow as more locations open.
“Unlike ice cream, when we see a problem, we don’t just melt,” says Almanzar. “People are already photographing our food constantly for their own enjoyment. We want to take some of that joy and help them spread it around and do some good with it. Do something great with it. Our communities are everything and so giving back with GiftAMeal is a no-brainer.”
The program is projected to feed tens of thousands and has the added effect of bringing the hunger-fighting startup GiftAMeal into 11 new markets across the country.
And according to GiftAMeal CEO and founder Andrew Glantz, as new restaurants in each market follow Chick’nCone’s example in giving back, the ultimate effect will be millions of lives changed:
“It’s tremendous: in a single day, we’ve expanded to support incredible organizations that are healing hunger all throughout the country, in so many new cities and states. We’re honored to work with such an exciting, fast-growing brand like Chick’Cone.”
“If the markets opened up by our expansion with Chick’nCone grow like we’ve seen in other cities, we’re looking at millions of potential meals provided in a matter of years.”