ATLANTA — Chick-fil-A is expanding its efforts to fight food insecurity across the United States during Hunger Action Month, committing up to $1 million in matching donations while mobilizing restaurants, nonprofit organizations and communities to help neighbors facing hunger.
Throughout September and beyond, Chick-fil-A Inc. plans to match money raised through local community fundraisers in more than 40 U.S. markets, with donations benefiting Feeding America partner food banks.
The initiative comes as hunger continues to affect communities across the country. Feeding America reports that nearly 48 million Americans, including 14 million children, experienced food insecurity in 2024.
The need reaches every corner of the nation. Feeding America’s 2026 Map the Meal Gap research found people experiencing food insecurity in every U.S. county and congressional district.
Chick-fil-A’s September campaign builds on a partnership model that connects corporate resources with locally operated restaurants and nonprofit organizations already serving their communities.
“In communities across the country, people are coming together during Hunger Action Month to help ensure everyone has access to the food and resources they need to thrive,” Lisa Mann, chief development officer at Feeding America, said in the company’s announcement.
The company also plans to open 15 restaurants during September, with Chick-fil-A donating $25,000 to a local Feeding America partner in connection with each opening. That represents another $375,000 directed toward local hunger-relief efforts.
But Chick-fil-A’s response to hunger extends beyond financial contributions.
Through its Shared Table program, participating restaurants donate surplus prepared food to nonprofit organizations, where it can be transformed into meals for people who need them rather than going unused.
Since the program began in 2012, Chick-fil-A says it has helped create more than 50 million meals. More than 2,700 restaurants — representing more than 90% of Chick-fil-A locations — participate, working with more than 1,600 nonprofit organizations nationwide.
The company says its broader hunger-relief efforts, including Shared Table, disaster relief, food-bank donations and True Inspiration Awards grants, have helped provide the equivalent of more than 200 million meals since 2020.
That combination of food recovery, philanthropy and local partnerships illustrates how resources that already exist within communities can be redirected toward meeting immediate human needs.
“Feeding people is at the heart of what we do,” Chick-fil-A CEO Andrew T. Cathy said.
The effort will receive additional attention Sept. 30 when Chick-fil-A hosts its Shared Table Experience in New York City. The event is designed to demonstrate the program’s impact and encourage people to consider the role they can play in addressing hunger locally.
For every visitor who participates in the experience, Chick-fil-A says it will donate a meal to The Bowery Mission, a New York nonprofit and Shared Table partner.
While large corporate commitments can provide important resources, the larger story is what happens when businesses, nonprofits, employees and community members work together around a shared need. A restaurant’s surplus food can become someone’s meal. A neighborhood fundraiser can attract matching dollars. A new business opening can become an opportunity to support a local food bank.
“Companies have an incredible opportunity to turn their resources into meaningful service,” said Bruce Petillo, founder of Heartitude. “When businesses and communities work together to care for their neighbors, generosity becomes more than a donation — it becomes hope in action. Hunger is a difficult challenge, but every meal shared and every person who chooses to help can make a difference.”
Those individual actions become considerably more powerful when connected.
For communities interested in helping, Feeding America offers opportunities to donate, volunteer, fundraise, advocate and locate nearby food banks. Ending hunger is an enormous challenge, but initiatives such as these demonstrate that responding to it can begin with something profoundly local: neighbors choosing to care for neighbors.