Wendy’s Pledged $500K To Social Justice Causes A Day After Being Criticized For Its Franchisee's Trump Donation
Wendys announced that it was donating $500,000 to "support social justice" on Wednesday night, a day after it was widely criticized on social media after people found out the CEO of one of the franchise companies it works with donated $400,000 to re-elect President Donald Trump.
In a thread on Twitter, Wendy's announced its donation and affirmed its support for the Black Lives Matter movement.
"We’re about putting our money where our mouth is. So here’s our money and here’s our mouth," the chain said in one tweet: "We are committed to donating $500k to support social justice, the youth and education in the Black community starting with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and we’ll have receipts."
Our voice would be nothing without Black culture. Right now, a lot of people are hurting because of blatant racism against Black people. Their voices need to be heard. Period. #BlackLivesMatter
— Wendy's (@Wendys) June 3, 2020
Wendy's said that its customers and employees have "spoken loud and clear" and that it would also be using its popular Twitter account to amplify the voices of Black creators in the coming days.
Yesterday, #WendysIsOverParty began trending on Twitter as users learned James Bondenstedt, the CEO of Muy!, a company that establishes franchises for Wendy's, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut, had donated a total of $440,000 to Trump reelection efforts, according to Business Insider, including a donation of $200,000 to the Trump Victory PAC in March. The story first surfaced thanks to an article by Ucomm Blog, an independent media outlet.
Following its most recent tweets announcing its donation, a Twitter user asked Wendy's if it would be "willing to speak out about the accusations that your company is supporting Donald Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign."
"We never have and will never contribute to a presidential campaign. For the record our CEO has always kept that same energy too. Facts," the brand replied.
When someone linked the Business Insider report, Wendy's replied again saying "we said what we said," meaning that James Bodenstedt, who made the donations, is not the CEO of Wendy's as a whole, but of a company that owns some Wendy's franchises. Todd Penegor is the CEO of Wendy's.
we said what we said https://t.co/2xXBykBe7u
— Wendy's (@Wendys) June 4, 2020
Another person replied clarifying just that, saying: "Correction: the ceo of a company who operates 25 Wendy’s chains (at most) is funding trumps 2020 campaign. the actual ceo of wendy’s is doing no such thing. this took me a 3 second google search to dismantle your argument."
correction: the ceo of a company who operates 25 Wendy’s chains (at most) is funding trumps 2020 campaign. the actual ceo of wendy’s is doing no such thing. this took me a 3 second google search to dismantle your argument
— ??L?I?A?P?E? ?????????????? (@liape_official) June 3, 2020
Wendy's replied "found the truth quick quick."
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