Ten years ago, Deena and Jay Ferro took a risk and opened Kyle’s Kitchen. They founded the fast casual restaurant with a much deeper purpose than serving burgers: to support and uplift families in the community who have children with special needs.
“For us, it was pretty clear because we had our son who has special needs. We just want what’s best for him and others like him, so that was the reason we started it,” said Jay. Their mission has guided them, and the outcome is phenomenal. Over the last decade, Kyle’s Kitchen has served more than five million burgers and raised more than $300,000 for local special needs organizations.
The idea of incorporating philanthropy within a business was important to Jay as he was brainstorming and planning for the restaurant. “We really didn’t know how the community would respond to it. I remember back then I had gotten some inspiration from TOMS Shoes,” he said. Jay drew inspiration from their charitable aspect but had to brainstorm how he could apply this idea on a local scale. “Obviously, we can’t send burgers to Africa, so we had to come up with a different way to support them. We just committed to highlighting, partnering with a different local special needs organization and letting the community know about them,” he said.
