The idealist may tout the pleasures of learning for its own sake, but the pragmatist knows otherwise. Which is one reason why several neighborhood schools are participating in a DISD program with Jason’s Deli.
Since September, Jason’s has provided tokens for students at 29 eligible elementary schools in Dallas, including Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, Bonham, and Lakewood Elementary. Students may exchange the tokens for kid’s meals and drinks at its restaurants.
So far, everyone seems excited by the results, says Maria Alvarez, the parent’s advocate at Bonham. Bonham, a kindergarten through third grade elementary, provides tokens to second and third graders who are on the A honor roll. Twenty-five students received tokens following the first six-week grading period and twenty-nine following the second, says Alvarez. The school may also sponsor contests and present winners with Jason’s tokens.
In contrast, Robert E. Lee runs a larger program. According to Santos Cortez, the community liaison, approximately 250 of the school’s 440 students had been recognized by mid-November for perfect attendance or for being listed on the A-B honor roll
The initial partnership runs through May, but Brand thinks it likely that Jason’s will continue to work with the schools in some way. That is good news to Alvarez.
“We’re very happy that they thought of us,” she says. “We’re happy to have them as our partner, and we would like to work with them in other areas.”
The schools were chosen for their proximity to a Jason’s restaurant, says Michael Ralston, DISD’s community relations director, who applauds the restaurant chain’s initiative in creating the partnerships.
“We got contacted by them, met and identified the schools and contacted the schools,” Ralston says, all within two weeks. The rapidity with which the incentives were instituted reflects, he says, on how well the proposal was put together.
For Jason’s, the partnership grew out of a commitment to the communities in which it conducts its business. Last school year, the company introduced the program in Round Rock and Beaumont and received favorable responses. As a result, the restaurant chain expanded the program to a number of markets across Texas.
“Jason’s is a very family-oriented restaurant,” says Bill Brand, the chain’s marketing manager for the Dallas-Fort Worth area. “Our menu attracts a lot of families.”
The restaurant provides an unlimited number of tokens to the schools and does not specify how they may be used. “We didn’t want to put barriers on the program,” Brand notes. Instead Jason’s prefers “to recognize students for achievements of any kind.”
