Church's Chicken recently announced that it will be distributing scholarships to 227 high school students across the U.S., as part of the 2018-2019 Church's Scholars Program. Now in its fourth year, Church's Scholars has awarded over 600 in scholarships to deserving high school students. This year Church's Scholars will award $227,000 worth of scholarships, made possible by the generous support of Church's Partners Foundation, Inc., which oversees the program that recognizes students for their educational merit, and Church's Chicken franchise restaurants. Six franchisees led the 2018 program efforts including:

• Noor Samji – Franchise owner of Border Chicken with locations in Arizona and New Mexico

• Tony Lutfi – Franchise owner of Mar-Lu Arizona, Mar-Lu Texas and Mar-Lu Nevada with locations in Texas, Arizona, and Nevada

• Tom Gresham -  Franchise owner of Double Quick, Inc with locations in Mississippi and Arkansas

• Indy Bhatti – Franchise owner of Bhatti, Inc with location in Arizona

• Khaled Habash – Franchise owner of Delta Restaurants LLC with locations in Texas

• David Newman – Franchise owner of Bernard P. Newman Family Trust d/b/a Best Chicken of El Paso, B.P. Newman Family Trust; and B.P. Newman with locations in Texas, Arizona, Louisiana, and New Mexico

"Education is truly a life-changer and nothing makes me prouder than being able to recognize the dedication of these students to help them achieve their goals of going to college, which will open new, positive worlds for them –and I speak for all 10 of us franchisees that had an impact in supporting the Scholars," said Brendan Berg, President of the foundation and Senior Vice President of Global Ops Services for Church's Chicken.

The scholarship recipients had to demonstrate key achievements to be considered, including grade point average, work experience and involvement in extracurricular school and community activities. Each one of the 227 scholarship recipients will receive $1,000 toward their tuition during the 2018-2019 academic year at an accredited two-year or four-year college, university or vocational/trade school in the United States.

In addition to the funds supplemented by direct contributions from franchisees and vendor partners, an annual coupon booklet sale purchased by customers at Church's Chicken restaurants is one of the primary generators of funding.