Dade City's First Chick-fil-A Opens With 80 Jobs, $35,000 for Hunger Relief

Dade City has its first Chick-fil-A. The restaurant at 12645 US Hwy 301 opened Thursday, Sept. 3, bringing about 80 new jobs to town and a $35,000 donation split between two hunger-relief groups that serve Pasco County families.

Chick-fil-A gave $25,000 to Feeding Tampa Bay and $10,000 to Meals on Wheels of Pasco to mark the opening. The company says the gifts are meant to address food insecurity in the area the new restaurant will serve.

The Dade City location is owner-operator Scott Amole's second restaurant. He has run the Chick-fil-A in Zephyrhills since 2015 and will now oversee both. Before the Dade City doors opened, Amole and his team drove over to surprise Meals on Wheels of Pasco volunteers with breakfast and handed over the $10,000 check in person.

That relationship isn't new. Since 2021, Amole's Zephyrhills restaurant has donated surplus food to Meals on Wheels of Pasco through Chick-fil-A's Shared Table program, a system that routes food that would otherwise go to waste to homebound residents instead. That program has helped provide nearly 7,000 meals over the years, including more than 2,000 so far in 2026. The new Dade City restaurant will join Shared Table too, which means there's now a second local kitchen feeding into that pipeline.

Beth Aker, executive director of Meals on Wheels of Pasco, said the partnership reflects what it takes to keep neighbors fed: people and businesses showing up. Amole said caring for a community means learning what it actually needs, then finding ways the restaurant can help meet it.

What opening day looked like

Chick-fil-A leaned into its cow mascot for the celebration. Anyone who showed up Thursday in cow attire, whether a full costume or just a spotted accessory, could redeem a free entree or kid's meal at the counter or in the drive-thru. The offer ran on breakfast items like the Chicken Biscuit and Egg White Grill in the morning, and switched to sandwiches and nuggets for lunch and dinner, while supplies lasted.

Hours and how to order

The restaurant is open Monday through Saturday from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., staying open an extra hour on Fridays until 11 p.m. It's closed Sundays, as all Chick-fil-A restaurants are. Guests can dine in, use the drive-thru, order carry-out, get third-party delivery, or pick up a mobile order.

For a restaurant with 80 openings on staff, the bigger story for Dade City may be less about chicken sandwiches and more about jobs and a second local pipeline of food reaching people who can't easily leave their homes. Amole said the new location gives him room to build another team while keeping the Shared Table partnership running in both cities. No word yet on whether Chick-fil-A Dade City plans its own separate community events beyond the opening, but with two restaurants now under one owner-operator, Pasco County's Meals on Wheels program has a second kitchen backing it up.

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