Golden Corral’s first family steakhouse opened in Fayetteville, NC in 1973 by James Maynard, founder and current Chairman of the Board. In the late 1990’s Golden Corral introduced the Buffet & Grill concept.
Today, there are 495 Golden Corral restaurants in 41 states – 395 are franchised units and 100 are company-owned. Golden Corral restaurants serve over 200 million meals a year and the chain has consistently been named the top U S Buffet and Grill Franchisor by Entrepreneur Magazine. Ted Fowler is President and CEO of Golden Corral. The restaurant chain employs approximately 250 employees at their Corporate Office in Raleigh, North Carolina and approximately 75,000 co-workers in the restaurants throughout the USA.
One of the core beliefs for Golden Corral Corporation is giving back to the communities and people they serve. This is a very family oriented corporation and quite naturally led to our organization’s effort on behalf of children and the military.
Golden Corral has been a sponsor of Children’s Miracle Network for the past 4 years. Golden Corral restaurants are invited to participate and each year has shown with increased participation and increased contributions.
The first two years Golden Corral participated in the sale of $1 Miracle Balloons and no additional activities. This created awareness in the restaurants but not the ‘buzz’ to really move this forward program.
For the past two years, Golden Corral restaurants have used the $1 Miracle Balloons with a $1 off next visit coupon– a win-win for both the children and restaurant guests. To engage our younger population, every child receives a fun, balloon decorated cup, complete with the Golden Corral and Children’s Miracle Network logos. The cups are used for our change bandit program – each child was rewarded with a prize when the cups with change were returned.
Each Golden Corral restaurant has the option to run other activities to increase awareness in the community for Children’s Miracle Network. Restaurants have hosted fun festivals and golf tournaments, auctions, community dinners, classic car shows, raffles for TV’s, a new car, a child’s playhouse, gift baskets and a BBQ grill to name a few, bake sales, yard sales, motor cycle poker runs, and many more exciting programs for their guests. These events provided a mean for the community (outside of current Golden Corral guests) to get involved and help support Children’s Miracle Network and Golden Corral.
Contributions for Children’s Miracle Network have continued to increase each year. In 2008, Golden Corral’s fourth year as a sponsor of Children’s Miracle Network, over $650,000 was raised. In four years, Golden Corral restaurant guests, management teams and co-workers have raised over $1,953,024.
As Golden Corral begins its 5th year as sponsor of Children’s Miracle Network, everyone is looking forward to another opportunity to help children through donations to the local Children’s Hospitals.