Church members use Chick-fil-A rewards to feed, and thank health professionals
CANTON, Ga. - Many people are following the latest about the Coronavirus and want to help, especially when it comes to nurses and doctors who are busy treating patients. Now members of a church in Canton are using Chick-fil-a reward points to feed people.
It started with just a handful of people at Revolution Church, but when the call went out over social media, the community responded. If you eat Chick-fil-a and use their app, you know that you collect points, and those points are going a long way to thank teams of doctors and nurses on the front lines of this.
Rachel Reeves and other members of Revolution Church have spent the week handing off bags of Chick-fil-a sandwiches donated by caring community members.
"Like so many I’m sure right now, I have just been feeling really overwhelmed and scared and life is chaotic, so I was just thinking what I could do to help the nurses and doctors. I know they are so overwhelmed and I thought 'What is something I can do?' It started with the Chick-fil-a points. We started asking just our staff at church, and then it ran to just our team members and then it just expanded from there and blew up on social media because everybody is looking for a way to help right now," Rachel explains.
So far, they’ve been able to donate more than 500 sandwiches. "Were you surprised by the reaction from everyone?" Asks reporter Katie Beasley. "Oh so, so surprised. What a true blessing. Everyone has really shown up and the number is still growing," replies Rachel.
"Were the folks at Chick-fil-a surprised by this, too? It might have caught them off guard a little bit too," Beasley asks.
"It did a little bit at first when I paid with all gifted points, but now they’re used to it and expecting it and they’re on board and they love it just as much as we do, they love to help as well," adds Rachel.
Rachel says the reaction at the hospitals, when they handed off the bags to the emergency personnel outside, was one of gratitude.
"We kind of just handed the sandwiches off to them and said please send these to your E.R., bless them with these sandwiches. They were so excited. They said they hadn’t gotten anything else from anybody else in the community yet and they were so excited to be appreciated like that," Rachel explains.
So far, the sandwiches have been sent to Northside Cherokee Hospital in Canton and Piedmont Mountainside in Jasper.
"Revolution Church really focuses on life on a mission which means helping the community you’re in. So, we really try to pour into those communities and help wherever we can, whatever needs we can meet…we meet," Rachel says.
Chick-fil-a is also writing messages of hope on the bags as part of their 10,000 messages of kindness campaign.
If you want to donate some of your reward points, it’s very easy and just a few clicks on the app. One sandwich is 500 points. In the app, go to "Rewards," "Redeem," find the Chick-fil-a Chicken Sandwich and then choose "Gift to a friend." Rachel's email address is: Rachelreeves72@yahoo.com.