Burgerville- Fast Food with Ethics Quiz

Answer: The Pacific Northwest

Burgerville has locations throughout northern Oregon and southern Washington, from Albany OR to Centralia WA. It was founded in Vancouver WA in 1961.

Answer: No use of plastic utensils

Yes, you'll still get a plastic fork with your salad! But Burgerville has committed to reducing its environmental footprint in many ways. All of its cooking oil is converted into biodiesel automobile fuel. Burgerville pays very competitive wages to its employees, and all receive health-care benefits (Burgerville pays 95% of the premiums); a rarity in the fast food industry. Burgerville purchases its power from environmentally-friendly wind generators. By not using fossil fuel power, this reduces carbon emissions as much as taking 1700 cars off our freeways!

Answer: Buying only eggs from cage-free hens

In Jan. 2007, Burgerville removed one of the last factory-farmed products from its menu when it began purchasing only eggs from uncaged hens at Stiebrs Farms, a family-owned business in Yelm, WA. This move brought praise from the Humane Society of the United States.

Burgerville already obtains all of its beef from Oregon Country Beef, a co-operative whose members raise their animals on range with no feedlots and no antibiotics, and all of its turkey from Diestel Family Turkey Ranch, which raises its turkeys on pasture. Burgerville also uses only non-farmed salmon.

Answer: Walla Walla onion rings

Burgerville has seasonal items that change throughout the year. There is always a seasonal milkshake- strawberries in the spring, blackberries in the summer, pumpkin in the fall, hazelnuts in the winter. Other seasonal items include strawberry shortcake in the spring, the sweet Walla Walla onion rings in summer, and sweet potato fries in the fall.

Answer: An interactive toy

According to the Burgerville website, http://www.burgerville.com/html/kids/ "Each Kids Meal includes a fun interactive toy, designed to encourage kids and adults to have fun, communicate and learn together." The puzzles for spring 2007 included Fresh Berry Milkshake, Frisbee Fun, Balloons & Ice Cream, and Wind Power. Alas, on my last visit to Burgerville, the Kids Meal toys were sold out, so I did not get to see what a Wind Power puzzle looks like :>(

Answer: Burgerville's offering has more calories, fat and sodium

Well, at least if you're going to clog your arteries, you can do it in a socially responsible way!

The lowdown:
Burgerville Pepper Bacon Tillamook burger- 690 calories, 46 g. fat, 1170 mg. sodium.
Burger King's bacon cheeseburger- 360 calories, 18 g. fat 870 mg. sodium.

Undoubtedly, much of the difference is due to the fact that the Burgerville burger is bigger, but portion sizes aren't listed on the Burgerville nutrition info.

Answer: Yes

This is evidenced by the fact that I am a vegetarian but still sing Burgerville's praises!

Veggie offerings include regular and spicy black bean veggie burgers, Rogue River Smokey Blue Cheese salad, egg bagel and muffin sandwiches at breakfast, and of course all of those yummy shakes and side dishes.

As a matter of history, Burgerville was vegetarian-friendly long before it was trendy. As early as 1986, it offered a vegetarian "Unburger."

Answer: A dairy

Jacob Propstra, founder of the Holland Creamery, was born in the Netherlands to a dairying family. After he came to the US in 1904, her moved the the Northwest and bought a creamery in Ridgefield, WA. He operated several other creameries as well. One of them, in Vancouver, added a small lunch counter, run by Jacob's son Ernie. When Ernie moved to Seattle, Jacob's son George took over the business. He expanded the original restaurant several times (it actually remained open until 2001) and then, in 1961, opened the first Burgerville.

George Propstra died in 2004 at the age of 90. He was a generous donor to all manner of local charities, especially those involving education (he donated over 8.5 million to local schools). A public square in Vancouver WA. is named in his honor.

The president of Burgerville, as of 2007, is Propstra's son-in-law Thomas Mears. The business is still family-owned.

Answer: Better Workplace Award

Burgerville got this award for its comprehensive worker health care program. For all employees that work 20 hours or more per month for at least 6 months, Burgerville offers insurance for which it pays 95% of the premium. Burgerville also pays 90% of the cost of dependent insurance.

Other 2007 awards for Burgerville-
Association of Washington Business' 2007 Community Service Award for its charitable contributions
Washington State Recycling Association Recycler of the Year

Just a few of the other awards Burgerville has garnered-
- The Food Network's first ever Better Burger award
- "America's Freshest Fast Food" by Gourmet magazine
- Oregon Department of Agriculture Agriculture Progress Award
- Businesses for an Environmentally Sustainable Tomorrow from the City of Portland's Office of Sustainable Development
- 2004 Grand Award Winner for Best Kids Menu in America from Restaurant Hospitality magazine
- 2006 Green Power Leadership award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy

Answer: Serve with Love

As an unnamed blogger wrote in his blog at http://www.gethoefer.com/blog/?p=4:
"But as Tom Mears, the President and owner (along with his family) of Burgerville got up to the podium to accept the award, I heard something uttered from him that really shook the foundations of what I thought about corporate responsibility. Tom, of course, talked about how Burgerville supports local farmers who provide his company with a plethora of seasonal produce, talked about recycling, and then he spoke of his vision and the company's mission of "Serve with Love".

He said something to the affect that they instruct all of their employees that of all responsibilities, they must "Serve with Love". He went on to say that when people go to Burgerville and they are served with love, they will be, literally, nourished with love. They will then leave Burgerville and go out into their communities and they'll have a little more love to share with their friends, neighbors, and families. That love will continue to be shared to other communities and eventually spread around the world. So in a sense, Burgerville's mission is to heal the world by sharing love."