Chick-fil-A has spent decades fighting hunger, but the chain’s third-generation CEO is now pushing the entire restaurant industry to join the effort. Andrew Cathy, who took over as CEO in 2021, says the problem is too big for one company to solve alone.
The company’s Shared Table program, which donates surplus food from its restaurants to local nonprofits, now covers 90% of Chick-fil-A locations. That is up 10% from just three years ago. The program partners with more than 1,600 nonprofit organizations nationwide and has created more than 50 million meals since it began, including more than 8.6 million so far this year.
The Idea That Started in Knoxville
The program traces back to owner-operator Marshall Wilkins, who came up with the idea to donate surplus food from his restaurant in Knoxville, Tennessee, in the 1990s. The concept was so successful that Chick-fil-A formalized it in 2012, adding logistics, internal goals, awareness campaigns and more, and began rolling it out throughout the system.
The popup event where Cathy spoke took place at The Oculus in Manhattan’s Financial District on Sept. 30, the last day of Hunger Awareness Month. It featured free chicken sandwiches, statistics about the hunger crisis in the United States, and a donated meal to The Bowery Mission for each visitor who attended. The Bowery Mission is Chick-fil-A’s Shared Table program partner in New York City, providing essential needs to New Yorkers with the goal of helping them overcome homelessness and poverty.
Cathy’s Family Roots in Poverty
Cathy’s passion for the program comes directly from his grandfather, Truett Cathy, who founded the Dwarf House in 1946, which became the precursor to the first Chick-fil-A in 1967. Truett led the company for 46 years before his son Dan took over in 2013, followed by Andrew.
“My grandfather grew up in poverty. He lived in the first government housing in the state of Georgia,” Cathy said during a recent interview in New York City. “He grew up in a big family and would talk about how many times they didn’t have a meal. He would go to the grocery store to pick up food because you could buy things on credit and they wouldn’t let him buy anymore because they hadn’t paid their bills. As a family, they would share a couple of slices of bread and that was all they had.”
Truett’s experience shaped him in a way that made him always have a list of people to help whenever he had something extra. That idea became a huge part of the company as it grew, and it remains central today.
From Board Service to a Personal Mission
Cathy’s commitment deepened when he served on the board of the Atlanta Community Food Bank. That experience flipped a light switch, connecting the issue of hunger with the business of food.
“That’s when it became a real understanding,” he said. “It’s hard to comprehend that in 2026, one in seven Americans don’t know where their next meal is going to come from. And it impacts every single county in the U.S. A lot of times we might perceive that it’s an issue in bigger cities, but it’s in every single county.”
The problem is so large that Chick-fil-A’s own program, impressive as it is, barely scratches the surface. Cathy wants to change that by getting other companies to work together.
“Even with us having so many operators participating, we’re barely making a dent,” he said. “How can we collaborate with others in the industry to really make a difference? We can be competitors in the marketplace, but we can work together to make a difference, and I’m really passionate about opportunities to do that.”
CEOs Are Already Talking
Cathy said he has talked to “just about every CEO” in the restaurant industry, and all of them have expressed interest in working together. Nothing is in place yet, but he said they are “getting close to having a goal.”
“We are an open book about what’s worked, what hasn’t,” he said. “Others have shared what they’re doing. Everyone is opening up their books so we can really work together.”
The objective is simple: reduce the 22 billion pounds of food that get thrown away every year and increase the 4.5 billion pounds of food processed by Feeding America to help nourish hungry Americans.
Awareness Comes First
Cathy’s near-term goal is to keep facilitating discussions with competitors to come up with more solutions “holistically.” He also wants to raise awareness throughout the industry and beyond.
“The fact that we have so many Americans that don’t know where their meals are coming from, I don’t think we talk about that enough,” he said. “The biggest thing is awareness, and the second thing is understanding how the process works to make a difference and get others to join.”
| Event | Date |
|---|---|
| Shared Table popup | Sept. 30, last day of Hunger Awareness Month |
| Dwarf House founded | 1946 |
| First Chick-fil-A opened | 1967 |
| Shared Table formalized | 2012 |
- Free chicken sandwiches were served at the popup
- Statistics about the hunger crisis were presented
- A donated meal to The Bowery Mission was provided for each visitor
- More than 50 million meals have been created through the program
- More than 8.6 million meals have been created this year
Cathy acknowledges that figuring out how to coordinate across competitors will take time. But he is fired up about the potential.
“Imagine if the whole industry was doing this. The impact could be massive, and I think a light lift to figure out how to get better at these things,” he said. “We can do so much more together than we can do independently. There are great organizations doing incredible things but how do we make a collective goal? It’s going to take time to figure out the best way, but it has me fired up.”
The Shared Table program has grown from a single restaurant idea to covering 90% of Chick-fil-A’s locations. Its success has not gone unnoticed.
The popup event in Manhattan was designed to illustrate that hunger is a year-round problem, not just a monthly concern. By holding it on Sept. 30, the last day of Hunger Awareness Month, Chick-fil-A was signaling that the issue does not disappear when the month ends.
The program’s scale is impressive. More than 50 million meals have been created through the Shared Table program, including more than 8.6 million so far this year. That is a significant contribution to hunger relief, but Cathy sees it as a starting point rather than a finish line.
The industry-wide push is still in early stages. Cathy has spoken to nearly every CEO in the sector, and all of them have expressed interest. But there is no formal agreement yet, and Cathy admits that figuring out the best way forward will take time.
The learnings from each other have been really exciting, he said. The openness is mutual — Chick-fil-A shares what has worked and what hasn’t, while other companies share their own approaches.
The challenge is coordination. With 22 billion pounds of food wasted annually, the potential for collective action is enormous.
Cathy’s grandfather’s story is the emotional engine behind the program. Truett’s experience growing up in poverty, sharing a few slices of bread with his family, gave him a lifelong habit of helping others whenever he had extra. That habit became the foundation of Chick-fil-A itself.
The popup event in Manhattan was a public demonstration of that commitment. By giving away chicken sandwiches and highlighting the hunger crisis, Chick-fil-A was drawing attention to a problem that often stays hidden.
The popup also served a practical purpose. It provided a donated meal to The Bowery Mission for each visitor who attended, extending the program’s reach beyond Chick-fil-A’s own restaurants.
The program’s growth is remarkable. It started with one operator in Knoxville and expanded to cover 90% of the chain in a relatively short period. That expansion required careful planning — logistics, internal goals, awareness campaigns — and it shows what a committed company can achieve when it sets its mind to a problem.
The industry-wide push is the next chapter. If Cathy can bring other CEOs together, the collective impact could be significant.
Source material: “Why Chick-fil-A amplified its fight against hunger,” Nation's Restaurant News.
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