Charlie: Was basically homelesss (lived in a motel with my (at that time) more or less ex. Subway is one of the few fast food companies that includes vegetables, VEGETABLES, in its regular menu in substantial ways. (El Pollo Loco uses cabbage like a weapon, not good.) Subway also takes Food Stamps/EBT as payment which means that people without regular refridgeration (homeless again) can have a fully nutritious meal at least once a day at a fairly reasonable price.

One other point: the fast-food chains you discuss are also first employers in neighborhoods where there are just no other jobs. One story: I was representing a young woman with not obvious but serious developmental disabilities seeking disability benefits on her late mother’s Social Security account. There was a work history for about three years of part-time employment. The young woman had a cousin who was a fast-food store manager who would hire the cousin whenever she herself changed jobs and other than the clean-up work and basic tasks that she knew her cousin wouldn’t mess up, did her work for her. Because of the unusual level of support the cousin provided, the young woman qualified for disability benefits. My sense this is pretty common in this sector of the economy.