Dick's Drive-In dropped off 200 cheeseburgers at Everett Gospel Mission, feeding staff and community members during an all-staff meeting at the Smith Avenue shelter.
The donation, announced in an Oct. 1 blog post by the mission, came through a connection brokered by EGM board member Chris Willis. The burgers were shared with mission staff and neighbors the organization serves. They didn't last long.
"There are plenty of ways to make an all-staff meeting better," wrote Alyssa Gustafson, the post's author. "Two hundred Dick's cheeseburgers is definitely one of them."
Damian Thompson, the mission's new Director of Community Partnerships, is now building a relationship with Dick's and exploring what a broader partnership could look like. Thompson said in the post that good things tend to begin by getting to know people, listening and seeing where the conversation leads. No next steps have been announced.
The donation marks another community tie for Dick's Everett location, which opened in 2025 as the chain's tenth restaurant and northernmost outpost. The location, near Everett Mall and Paine Field, already lists partnerships with the AquaSox, Everett Silvertips, Cocoon House and the YMCA Social Impact Center, according to the company's website.
Dick's Drive-In, founded in Seattle's Wallingford neighborhood in 1954, is still family-owned. President and CEO Jasmine Donovan, granddaughter of founder Dick Spady, has led the company since 2019. The chain runs a Round Up for Charity program supporting nine nonprofits focused on housing, food and education across the Puget Sound region.
Everett Gospel Mission has operated on Smith Avenue since 1961. The organization says it serves up to 300 people each night across Snohomish County and is the only provider of emergency shelter for single men in the county. EGM is in the middle of a $30 million expansion that would more than double its bed count from the current 100-plus.
That expansion gives the exploratory Dick's partnership added weight. If the relationship grows, it would connect one of the Puget Sound's most recognized burger chains with Snohomish County's largest shelter provider as the mission prepares to nearly double its capacity.
