A View From The Top

Tacos 4 Life cofounder reveals what it takes to succeed with a mission-focused brand

Tacos 4 Life holds annual MobilePack events to package the MannaPack meals that the organization, Feed My Starving Children, sends across the world.

November 13, 2020

By Austin Samuelson, Tacos 4 Life owner and co-founder

Austin and Ashton Samuelson pose with their children at one of the chain's 18 units.

In 2009, my wife Ashton and I learned that more than 18,000 children die worldwide from hunger or hunger-related causes every day. We were shocked to learn the prevalence and severity of world starvation and saw hunger as a solvable problem. As we began exploring different ways to help combat world hunger, we wondered, "What if we opened a restaurant that donated one meal for every meal purchased?"

We opened our first Tacos 4 Life location in 2014 because we wanted to bring people together to enjoy good food and fight for a good cause — ending world hunger. Six years later, we have raised more than 15 million meals and have 18 locations across the U.S.

Being a mission-focused brand provides us the opportunity to connect with our guests at a greater level because we are able to work towards a common goal. Our focus is to help fight world starvation, and our guests eat with us because they are passionate about this mission as well. I would love to offer three pieces of advice to other mission-focused brands:

High-quality product, service are essential
The biggest lesson we have learned is that, at the end of the day, it is still about the product and service. If those are not hitting, then the mission is nice to have, but your customers will not be satisfied with their overall experience at your restaurant.

Before Tacos 4 Life, we opened a pizza restaurant and the food was just okay. People loved the mission, but the restaurant did not last because the food was not great. We know that our guests eat with us at Tacos 4 Life because they love our food and service — our menu is crave-able, convenient and really good, and they talk about us because of our mission. It is easy to think that just because you have a mission people will eat with you, but that is not necessarily true.

Develop a clear, consistent mission
It can be challenging to effectively communicate the mission and product, but what we have learned is that you need to communicate the product first — that is the hook. We have live meal count boards behind the registers at each Tacos 4 Life location and decor throughout the dining areas that showcase and explain our mission to end world hunger. After guests finish their ordering process, that is when they can read about our mission and when we drive the important points home. Having live meal count boards makes our mission tangible and shows guests the number of kids they have helped feed. It lets them know their purchase has directly contributed to the mission.

I am a big believer in the one-to-one ratio that TOMS shoes made popular. For every taco, quesadilla, nachos, salad or rice bowl sold at Tacos 4 Life, one meal is provided to a hungry child. Because of this, our mission is very clear, and it is not based on a percentage of profits or sales. Our one-to-one donation ratio has been a major key to our success.

Never forget the why
You can never talk about your mission enough. It is easy to say, "Hey, we're going to focus on our service or on this new menu item," but always remember to never neglect the fact that you are working for something bigger. Instead, you should think, "Hey, the faster and more efficient our service is, the more kids we get to feed."

Your mission needs to be emphasized all day, every day both internally with your staff and externally with your guests. Ultimately, our mission is the reason why we exist, so all key decisions from a business and brand standpoint come back to the question of, What can we do to feed more kids?

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