Many of us are guilty of paying more attention to our screens than each other at the dinner table, but one fast-food chain is trying to discourage distraction and encourage interaction with a new challenge.
Chick-fil-A locations across the country have started doing the "Cell Phone Coop Challenge" to get customers to put down their phones and spend more time with their family and friends while they eat their chicken sandwiches and waffle fries.
To participate, customers silence their phones and put them in a small, square box called the "coop." If everyone at the table finishes their meal without taking the phones out of the coop, they receive a small Icedream cone.
The challenge has quickly caught on at more than 150 locations around the U.S. after Brad Williams, a Chick-fil-A operator in Suwanee, Ga., started the concept, the company says.
“We have families who aren’t successful the first time and come back to try again. We even have people asking to take the boxes home with them! Our whole community is talking about it,” Williams said.
News4 in Washington reached out to a few Chick-fil-A locations in the DMV to see if there are any that have started the challenge.
"We've seen that the cell phone coop has gone viral and we're trying to think of something ourselves," said Paul Novak, the director of operations at the DC USA Chick-fil-A.
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Other area Chick-fil-A restaurants said they might start the challenge in the near future.
