In order to do this, the 100 people who are selected by drawing have to sleep on the corner of 37th Street and 6th Avenue in Midtown Manhattan.
But before you subject yourself to camping out in midtown, you need to have a government-issued ID and live within an eligible ZIP code — which — which plausibly means you can’t win the opportunity to have free food for a year if you’re homeless and involuntarily sleep on the street.
“In other words, this one-year free food pass is worth something more valuable than money — it’s worth your dignity,” Jezebel‘s Joanna Rothkopf writes, in a post detailing the inanity of the contest’s hidden catch.
Jezebel’s comments section is now blowing up with people who are furious about this — especially since Chick-fil-A is a proudly Christian company. Chick-fil-A is famously closed Sundays.
“Aren’t they supposed to be Christians? Perhaps they could give free food for a year to 100 homeless New Yorkers instead of 100 New Yorkers who have an address and enough free time/ability to afford childcare to spend the night sitting on a sidewalk?” one commenter wrote.
“Is it just me, or is this a bit insensitive? You spend a night outside, as some sort of challenge for a year’s worth of free food? In New York? Which, like all major cities, has a substantial homeless population? Jesus, how low can you sink, Chick-fil-A?” another commenter wrote.
Ironically enough, a New York Times article claimed that Chick-fil-A was bringing its values to the volatile Big Apple.
“The values thing actually helps them,” Victor Fernandez, executive director for insights at TDn2K’s Black Box Intelligence, said to the Times. “Those strong values resonate with a lot of people — and Chick-fil-A has a strong product, too, which doesn’t hurt.”
Chick-fil-A has been fighting to repair its image. President Dan Cathy apologized to USA Today for his homophobic comments, but not everyone is so quick to forgive the chain. Denver questioned opening up a Chick-fil-A unit, The Huffington Post reported.
Chick-fil-A has a loyal following thanks to its freshly prepared chicken sandwiches, which are generally better than their fast-food counterparts.
We reached out to Chick-fil-A for comment and will update if we hear back.
Article Appeared @http://www.businessinsider.com/homeless-people-arent-eligible-for-free-chick-fil-a-2015-10