The Washington, Iowa Betterment Foundation received an oversized check for $6,000 from a recently-opened franchise restaurant Friday.

Jersey Mike’s franchise owner Kevin Schlutz presented the donation to the foundation in conjunction with a “grand opening” ribbon cutting organized by the Washington Chamber of Commerce. The restaurant opened this March in the former location of the KFC/Taco Bell that closed in August of 2020. Schlutz shares that with every Jersey Mike’s location that opens, they devote their first month to giving back to a local organization. Community members were offered $2 sandwich coupons which gave all the proceeds to the foundation, “The whole first month that we were open we were getting customer donations and on March 31st, which is what Jersey Mike’s calls the ‘Day of Giving,’ all of the sales from that day went to the foundation. And that was like 5,600 and some dollars and then I added in a little bit to make it 6,000.”

Schlutz was the franchise owner of the KFC/Taco Bell, and he’s happy to have brought a good company to Washington and keep over half of the previous employees on staff. Betterment Foundation Board Member Denise Erpelding says it feels amazing to receive the business’ and public’s support, “It just means that we’re able to give back to our community with other projects. So when people turn in a donation request we’re able to feed through those and be able to donate and give back to the community, which makes us feel even better, so bettering Washington!”

The organization supports projects that physically improve, beautify, and enhance the city of Washington, with over $375,000 contributed to over 200 projects in the last 20 years. One of its recent contributions was to the Washington Public Library to paint a mural in their “rebook room” used book store.