Community engagement is often treated as a one-off activation. The family-forward wings eatery Jefferson’s has always kept an eye on the hyperlocal needs of its restaurants, but in recent years the brand has looked for ways to balance that while scaling system-wide.
Now in its second year, the brand’s Teacher of the Year program has been executed within all 36 Jefferson’s locations in its five-state reach across the South and Midwest. The winners were announced on National Teachers’ Day—Tuesday, May 5. The program recognizes one educator in each Jefferson’s market, each selected from community-submitted nominations. Each winner received a $500 gift card and permanent in-store recognition. “Our vision was to create a visible and ongoing conversation between each of our restaurants and its local community,” said Jefferson’s President, Brandon Graham.
Jefferson’s is where people gather to watch games, to celebrate birthdays and graduations, and to grab a post-little-league-game burger with the whole team. While Jefferson’s has reached a sizable footprint from its one-unit start in 1991, the goal has never been to create a perfectly uniform, big-box experience; the brand’s emphasis has always been on ensuring its locations retain their local identities and neighborhood connections. The Teacher of the Year program is an answer to a difficult question for franchises: how do you grow as a restaurant while preserving local charm and neighborhood connections?
A Big Framework That Creates Local Connection
In recent years, Jefferson’s has looked to design community programs that would speak to all 36 locations—and all 36 neighborhoods—and has found an avenue in recognizing individuals who serve their communities through annual programs like Veterans Eat Free and the Coach of the Year initiative (the companion program to Teacher of the Year), with many Jefferson’s locations also stepping up to provide free meals when SNAP funding was unavailable this past fall.
This teachers campaign was conceived to be easily deployed across markets without causing disruption. The blueprint was the same location by location, state by state:
- A single nomination window aligned with a nationwide moment (National Teachers’ Day on May 5).
- Local, crowdsourced nominations from students, parents, and community members, sharing individualized and personal anecdotes about the nominee.
- Uniform winners timeline, allowing for system-wide coordination to close submissions and announce winners.
- Meaningful recognition elements through a $500 gift card and commemorative plaque for the winners, as well as finding multi-channel options for sharing these teachers’ many extraordinary moments.
This structure allows franchisees to participate without needing to build independent campaigns—and still ensuring that every story and winner is specific to its community.
“Our franchisees are doing a lot of day-to-day hard work already,” said Brandon Graham. “We built the framework that makes it easy for them to recognize stars in their community—and what comes out the other side is completely and authentically local.”
Preserving Local Feel
Jefferson’s has been intentional with its growth since the start. These efforts are in the name of sustainability—ensuring that every location is the right neighborhood, and that every franchisee is the right partnership. Many of Jefferson’s locations are in small towns, and leadership has been conscientious of preserving the small-town feel even as the brand evolves. Jefferson’s has found success in thinking about the forest while making sure every tree has what it needs by:
- Promoting growth from within. Around 65% of Jefferson’s locations are owned and operated by former employees, reflecting an organic growth philosophy that keeps local culture intact.
- Continuing unique and personalized traditions. Since its first location opened in 1991, Jefferson’s has held the custom of lining its walls with dollar bills that have been decorated by Jefferson’s many patrons—with creative freedom. Last summer, guests had the opportunity to decorate a dollar bill in exchange for BOGO wings. While this tradition is system-wide, different locations have each been hand-decorated by its community members. The result is another opportunity for connection between restaurant and community.
- Supporting the one-off community campaigns when they arise. Last year, a Lawrence food bank put out a call for support following budget cuts. Jefferson’s of Lawrence saw a community need the brand wanted to support, and partnered locally to organize a food drive. Jefferson’s looks for opportunities like this to bridge the gaps, neighborhood by neighborhood.
- Scaling large campaigns—like Teacher of the Year—that plug the brand back in locally. The result is a genuine connection with teachers, coaches, kids, veterans—in other words, the bedrock of Jefferson’s communities.
Local Revelations
This year, Teacher of the Year collected thousands of submissions, each offering a direct window into shifting community dynamics.
A significant portion of submissions highlighted teachers providing support beyond the classroom, ranging from organizing Friday night dinners and shoe-collection drives, building beds for children in need, providing personal hygiene products, and even providing shelter and care for students. The nominations received underscored the ever-expanding role of an educator in our cities.
For Jefferson’s, these insights are part of the value.
“When you scale something like this, you’re not just creating engagement. We’re getting a real-time view of what matters in our markets,” Graham said. “That’s invaluable.”
As multi-unit brands look for ways to scale localized engagement, Jefferson’s approach offers a clear blueprint: couple a centralized framework that allows each location to have an individual story.
Visit jeffersons.com to learn more about this year’s 2026 Teacher of the Year winners.
