"Eat Mor Chikin"

Fathers and Chick-fil-A are needed more than ever.

Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash

When I was in third grade, I had to make a very difficult choice. I could invite my father to school to discuss his job for Career Day, or I could ask him to be a chaperone for our field trip to the Brookfield Zoo. In those days, people didn’t have things like family leave or mental health days. Moreover, sick days were to be used for being sick. Thus, he couldn’t nor wouldn’t take both days off.

To further illustrate the kind of man my father is, when my mother was ill and needed to be driven to her chemotherapy treatments, he made up each hour of work he missed. It wasn’t because they asked him to, it was because he had a work ethic.

After my eldest sister was born, Dad left his job in the Sears paint department and got a job at Electro-Motive Diesel, which used to be a division of General Motors. Back then, it was not uncommon to get a job at places where you were low man on the totem pole, you were trained over time, and you were promoted into a career without need for a college degree. He became an electrical draftsman for locomotives. The tasks he ended up doing prior to retirement would be in keeping with engineering.

Electro-Motive Diesel was not a one-off in the 1950s or 1960s. Back then, many businesses took a chance on new hires. Those that kept their nose to the grindstone, providing an honest day’s work for an honest day’s wage were rewarded with promotions. My father became a white collar worker through on-the-job training.

Who did he learn his work ethic from? His own father whose father taught him and so on. Generations of men went to work every day to provide for their families. And, lest the feminists complain that women are being left out, my grandmother was a secretary for a Veterans Affairs hospital once my father was in 8th grade.

Examples of diligence, hard work, and being grateful for every opportunity were modeled in the home. Those raised during and just after WWII were raised by those who had suffered through The Great Depression and two world wars. Children were given chores beyond keeping their rooms clean, and they still found time to have fun with their friends and get their homework—essays not word searches—completed. Being able to juggle all taught time management and discipline.

But times change. What we deem as progress has led more and more families to break apart and excuses to be made for a child’s lack of basic skills.

So, seeing an opportunity to fill a much needed gap, a thriving business decided to provide a summer experience to children living in Hammond, Louisiana.

For some, the sky is falling because of Chick-fil-A’s summer camp. My goodness, its bad enough that they choose to be closed on Sundays. Meanwhile, consternation continues regarding their Christian values. But the dipping sauce on the nugget, which will surely cause the end of the company, is the idea of parents paying $35 for their kids to get a behind the scenes view of how Chick-fil-A operates.

Horror of horrors! For three hours, children ages 5-12 get to understand what serving customers is like, talk with management, eat lunch, meet the mascot, and go home with a goodie bag including a t-shirt.

Opportunities like this used to be called field trips. For example, when our daughter’s pre-school took a trip to a grocery store, none of us parents thought twice about it. We didn’t call officials claiming that child labor laws were being abused because they learned how food made it from a stockroom to the shelves.

No, Chick-fil-A is not going to be forcing five-year-olds to make fries. Furthermore, when looking at Hammond, Louisiana, its population is just over 23,400 with a poverty rate over 34% (World Population Review). One would think that before casting aspersions on Chick-fil-A, online agitators would look at what Chick-fil-A is attempting to accomplish—planting seeds of hope and success.

As Mike Rowe stated in an interview with Stuart Varney on Fox Business:

“What did we think was going to happen when we took Home Ec, shop, and basic financial literacy out of the public schools? Sooner or later, somebody is going to step up and say, ‘we have to inculcate these ideas into the next generation. If Chick-fil-A is going to be part of leading that charge, God bless them. There's somebody [that] has to step in to do this. Soft skills, basic common sense, all of that stuff is still for sale and, sadly, lacking."

I agree, Mike. I, for one, am thankful that in a country where corporations are increasingly considered the bad guys, Chick-fil-A is attempting to reverse a downward trend within our workforce. To the naysayers, let me point out that all the slots available for Chick-fil-A’s summer camp are filled.

As for me, in third grade, I wanted Dad for a day not an hour. So, I opted for my father to be a chaperone for our zoo trip. His group included me, obviously, but he was also given the most rowdy boys. I think my teacher’s prayers were answered when my father volunteered. Who knows? Perhaps that one day at the zoo with a male chaperone had a positive ripple effect on the boys in our group.

There should be praise for all who step into roles to try to make a difference. One small act of kindness. One day at the zoo. Three hours at Chick-fil-A. Each could be all it takes for young minds to begin seeing things differently.