Send your 5-year-old to Chick-fil-A summer camp to learn how to "take a guest order" and "box" their "own nuggets"

Chick-fil-a chicken sandwich. Photo: @jreed, via Wikimedia commons, under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. Chick-fil-a chicken sandwich. Photo: @jreed, via Wikimedia commons, under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

The Chick-fil-A in West Hammond, Louisiana recently advertised a summer camp targeted at kids aged 5-12 that's been getting tons of backlash on social media. The original post, which circulated across social media and was captured by delish, included the following "Activities for kids":

  • "Learn Dining Room Host and Customer Service skills
  • Learn how to take a guest order
  • Learn how to bag a guest order
  • Tour the kitchen and box your own nuggets
  • Make your own Ice Dream cone or cup
  • How to be a Chick-fil-A Cow Mascot"

That original text has been changed to:

  • "$35 per child includes: Kids Meal, T-shirt, name tag and snack:
  • Spend some time with the Chick-fil-A Cow and Chick-fil-A Team Leaders.
  • Get a behind the scenes look of Hospitality and Service.
  • Have a fun time getting a behind-the-scenes view of what it's like to work at America's favorite quick-service restaurant.
  • Enjoy a VIP Lunch.
  • Go home with some goodies."

The post has generated over 1.4 thousand responses, many of them harshly criticizing the notoriously homophobic company's take on "summer camp," including:

  • "A restaurant that stays closed on Sundays for religious purposes, but then grooms kids for child labor. Wild."
  • "This is horrifying. You are getting parents to pay you for forced labor."
  • "Bizarre to see Chick-fil-A putting 5 year olds to work especially in light of their recent connection to a teen worker getting killed by being pulled into a de-boning machine at one of their chicken plants."
  • "Someone found a loophole to child labor laws. The nerve to charge parents for their children to work."
  • "Why do you think the actual employees want a bunch of grubby kids running around getting in the way? Serious question. Also if I ever pulled up to a fast food intercom and a child answered me I'd be out of there. It's just unsanitary." 
  • "A child is never too young to teach them how to be an indentured servant. Bonus points for making their parents pay for this trap. Context: "Indentured servitude is a form of labor where an individual is under contract to work without a salary to repay an indenture or loan within a certain timeframe. Indentured servitude was popular in the United States in the 1600s as many European immigrants worked in exchange for the price of passage to America.""
  • "Get the F outta here with this."
  • "So it's child labor that we have to pay you for?"
  • "I mean, they expect a 13-year-old to carry a pregnancy to term, so why not box up customer chicken tenders?"
  • "Getting them used to "pizza as a bonus" quite young, eh?"
  • "Send your kids to labor camp! Y'all are WILD."

Despite these harsh criticisms, there were also some supporters who chimed in:

  • "I'll go against the grain here. Kudos to you, Chick-Fil-A Hammond. It's nice to see an offer to teach young children about work ethic and responsibility, while having a little fun at the same time. I'll ask my daughter if she's interested in attending."
  • "I love this and don't think it's bad at all. Customer service skills and kids love to play in the kitchen. Reminds me of the children museum where we got to grocery shop, but only with real food."

And there's clearly a market for this special Chick-fil-A child labor summer camp—in a follow-up post, the West Hammond store announced that the summer camp is now "completely booked."