ATLANTA — Chick-fil-A surprised a dozen of its team members with $25,000 college scholarships at its Atlanta headquarters. The students were also given a laptop to further their academic goals and studies.
The scholarships were awarded thanks to sales from the fast-food chain's bottled sauces as part of its remarkable futures scholarship initiative.
Earlier this week, Chick-fil-A announced it will invest $24 million in employees' higher education nationwide this year. A total of 12,699 college scholarships, including an additional 2,200 scholarships thanks to sauce sales, will be awarded to team members in 46 states, Washington D.C. and Canada. Chick-fil-A said the scholarships can be applied to any area of study at any accredited institution.
In 2020, Chick-fil-A began bottling its sauces to sell at select retail locations. All of the profits from the sauces go directly toward the scholarship program. Since then, sauce sales have contributed to more than $6.4 million for students' scholarships.
“The Chick-fil-A scholarship initiative has been instrumental in our investment in the growth and success of restaurant Team Members,” Tim Tassopoulos said, president of Chick-fil-A, Inc. and a former Remarkable Futures Scholarship recipient. “Our inspiring recipients this year have overcome great obstacles and remain dedicated to pursuing academic and personal success. We recognize their enormous potential and hope to play a small part in furthering their education, providing them with more opportunities to help achieve their goals.”
Chick-fil-A also said it will award additional team members with $1,000 and $2,500 scholarships in metro Atlanta.