Kevin Ford, a Burger King employee in Las Vegas, Nevada, was recently given just a small goodie bag for serving the fast food chain for 27 years and never missing a day of work. According to TMZ, the bag contained a bag of Reese’s, a Starbucks reusable cup, two pens, and one movie ticket. Ford said he felt like the company sent him stuff “they had lying around.”
In a now-viral video, he expressed how he felt underappreciated after receiving a goodie bag, which came from HMS Host, the company that hires staff for Burger King. Nonetheless, he expressed his appreciation to Burger King because that’s the kind of person he is.
“I’m happy about anything, I’m thankful for anything I get, I’m not that type of person, believe me. I’ve been through a lot. It’s a great company, you know, I’ve been there for 27 years. But like most big corporations, they’ve kind of lost touch with their workers, and through Covid and whatever, they started cutting out programs,” he said.
His revelations shocked many people, who felt angry and disappointed at Burger King for the package after spending two decades there. As a result, a GoFundMe campaign was started to remind Ford that he was much more valued.
So far, the campaign has raised more than $400,000. One of the notable contributions to the campaign came from actor and comedian David Spade, who gave $5,000 and sent a congratulatory message to Ford on Instagram.
Meanwhile, HMSHost issued a statement saying that the goodie bag Ford received was something “we call a Shout Out, which is recognition and appreciation from his peers.” Burger King also reacted to the gift incident, noting that it was just a “peer-to-peer reward in recognition of a short-term positive performance/experience.”