An 18-year-old guy named Logan has a limited diet and solely dependent on French fries, chicken nuggets and chocolate chip cookies from McDonald’s.
The teen left upset when the local restaurants stopped selling chocolate chip cookies in their area due to the coronavirus pandemic. His mother Francine Mundt couldn’t see her son disturbed so she decided to solve the issue and called the head office.
Francine told PEOPLE: “With everything going on the stay-at-home orders and stress levels getting higher — I was beyond shocked that someone who didn’t know me and had no reason to go out of his way for me did. The feeling is incredible.”
“Because of those silly cookies, we were going through some really dangerous times,” adds Francine, who became a stay-at-home mom and homeschools her son, partly due to his occasional violent outbursts.point 297 |
“Something as simple as bringing cookies to my house, that alone will make a huge difference in our daily lives.point 99 | ”point 106 | 1
She revealed her son loves McDonald’s and how they used to buy his favorite food on their way to teen’s school. “McDonald’s is his No. 1,” she said. “We’d drive through every day on his way to school and now, of course, we do Uber Eats delivery. Always. It’s a staple. If we forget the cookies on a drive-thru, we’re going back. There’s no doubt.”
The 48-year-old mother felt helpless after the lockdown began and her son’s eating routine got disturbed. She contacted McDonald’s office manager Lisa Molina to ask for help, also took some research on Internet to recreate the cookies for her son but she knew “he would know the difference in a heartbeat.”
She continued: “I called the head office, totally feeling like a moron, because who calls about cookies? I was apologetic, saying, ‘I know this sounds ridiculous, please don’t judge me. I know your cookies aren’t available right now, but I just wanted to find out when you think they might be.”
“With Logan, to keep him cool and calm, everything has to have a schedule,” Francine continues, noting that she keeps a laminated calendar with photos of items on it. “Once I do that, he’s chill. He knows he can hold it and see, ‘Okay, next month on the 18th or whatever date, McDonald’s cookies.”
Brad who is one of the owners of a Southern California McDonald’s franchise and runs multiple restaurants across Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties with his brothers, father, and uncle contacted Francine on April 15 and offered help to the family.
“You could tell he had a vested interest in learning more,” Francine recalled. “He was amazing.”
“When we heard Francine’s story, David and I both immediately — unbeknownst to each other contacted Aryzta, McDonald’s supplier partner.point 355 |
They have a bakery here in Orange County.point 34 | We didn’t give it a second thought,” Brad explains.point 89 | “It just felt like the right thing to do.point 128 | We saw someone who seemed like she could use a break and we wanted to do our part to help.point 199 | ”point 206 | 1
Brad then told Francine that he will visit her home with David, 43, and Todd, 37, to deliver cookies that will come in frozen in packs of 36 and she can bake them in an oven.
Speaking about his offer, Brad said: “From one of my conversations with Francine, I got the impression that loading the kids in the car and running a quick errand is not as easy as it seems when you have a child with autism. This is why I offered to deliver them… it never occurred to me to send them any other way.”
But Francine told Brad that her oven and stove have stopped working so would it be ok if she baked the cookies in convection. To which, kind Brad bought a new oven for Francine and installed it to her home before their meeting.
“I went, ‘Oh my God!’ I was shaking. I couldn’t believe it,” Francine recalls. “It couldn’t have come at a better time with my life at the moment. This was huge.”
Francine is extremely overwhelmed with the selfless gesture of Horner brothers and she thanked them for the same.
“These guys are running the biggest restaurant chain in the world and they want to make these changes,” she added. “It makes me so happy and so thankful, and shows me we’re moving in the right direction and how far we’ve come with autism awareness and acceptance.”
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