Very few things other than kittens warm the cold, hard hearts of Consumerist editors like in-store pay-it-forward chains. You know, where each customer in a drive-thru line offers to pay the bill of the person behind them in line. This miffs some people, but most take it in the spirit of community and awesomeness with which it’s intended. It’s happened yet again, at a Chick-Fil-A in Florida.

The Tampa Tribune reports that the evening was a community-minded one at that restaurant to begin with: a portion of the evening’s receipts were donated to a local church youth group. One family with two kids in the youth group was waiting to buy their food when the mother felt inspired. She would say that it was God, but you could also call it the spirit of generosity, or the spirit of delicious fried chicken.

“It occurred to me to bless the person behind me by paying for his order, too,” she told the Tribune. This began a chain that lasted for 36 cars. Sure, it’s not the record-breaking chains that we’ve seen at coffee joints like Starbucks or Tim Hortons. Paying for a stranger’s dinner order, even a fast-food dinner, is a more expensive proposition than paying for a few coffees or donuts. Apparently, no one balked at that: one person whose order came to less than $5 paid for a whole family’s dinner.

“It makes me really, really happy to know that so many people had smiles on their faces,” the woman who started the chain told the Tampa Tribune. In the end, the youth group made $150 from the fundraising event as well.

Temple Terrace woman’s random act of kindness infectious [Tampa Tribune]

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