Chick-fil-A Honors Fallen Soldiers On Memorial Day
In keeping with its long-term corporate mandate for community service and appreciation, some Chick-fil-A locations are once again making a push to honor those who sacrificed their lives for our freedoms on Memorial Day. Two Alabama locations will be honoring the fallen with what they call the Missing Man Table.
Two Chick-fil-A locations commemorating Memorial Day with missing man table https://t.co/7TF9HY2BdI @ChickfilA pic.twitter.com/QI7CD7dEpR
— Blue Alert (@BlueAlertUs) May 29, 2016
According to The Blaze, the tables are decorated, but are marked by an empty seat. The decorations include a rose in a vase, a white tablecloth, and a place setting. A framed note is also placed on the table explaining the reason why Memorial Day is celebrated each year.
This year, specifically the Gardendale and Fultondale, Alabama, locations will be setting up the memorial tributes. Each restaurant has featured a photo of the display on their respective Facebook page and explains the significance of each decoration on the table.
The note on the page reads as below.
“We cover a small table with a white cloth to honor a soldier’s pure heart when he answers his country’s call to duty. We place a lemon slice and grains of salt on a plate to show a captive soldier’s bitter fate and tears of families waiting for loved ones to return. We push an empty chair to the table for the missing soldiers who are not here. We lay a black napkin for the sorrow of captivity, and turn over the glass for the meal that won’t be eaten. We place a white candle for peace. And finally a red rose in a vase tied with a red ribbon for the hope that all our missing will return someday. You are not forgotten so long as there is one left in whom your memory remains.”
Not only will the restaurants be honoring the dead, but they will also be offering a special deal for past and current members of the United States military. Military personnel who present their military I.D. will receive a free original chicken sandwich on the holiday.
Table at the Lincoln Chick-fil-A is reserved Memorial Day weekend for those killed while serving our country.https://t.co/4GqeZpFe08#wowt
— 6 News WOWT (@WOWT6News) May 29, 2016
KOLN reports that a Lincoln, Nebraska, location held its Missing Man Table Memorial on Saturday, and they specifically made certain that the table was positioned in the center of the restaurant. Leadership staff member Chris Cole explained why.
“It’s just open in the middle, we wanted to be intentional about the one we set aside one where people can see it and understand what it is about and the meaning behind it.”
The Lincoln location on 27th Street also included a Bible in their display with the explanation that it represented “the strength gained through faith to sustain those lost from our country, founded as one nation under God.”
Chick-fil-A’s official company website states that the roots of its beginnings sprouted in 1946 when Truett Cathy opened the Dwarf Grill, the chain’s very first location, in Hapeville, Georgia. The menu’s specialty item was the boneless breast of chicken sandwich. The corporation itself was founded in the early 1960s and expanded into its first mall location in 1967. It has now become the largest fast-food chicken chain in the United States with annual sales of over $6 billion. The chain also hosts a number of themed restaurants in its offerings.
The website makes an official statement about the corporation’s community involvement.
“As part of our mission to have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A, many of our Franchised Restaurant Operators offer programs that help to enrich their local communities.”
The corporation continues to be privately held and family owned to this day and openly admits that it was built and continues to operate on Christian principles and values, and it teaches its employees to treat customers with a code that reflects “honor, dignity, and respect.”
[Image via Twitter]
