5-Year-Old Writes Heartwarming Letter to Restaurant Chain & Convinces Them to Change
With the world so full of complex concerns these days, ever feel like you want to help make a difference? Maybe it seems like one individual can’t do much to change anything at all.
Whatever you do, don’t tell that to a 5-year-old named Ava. It seems this little girl got wind of some serious problems caused by common plastic drinking straws.
According to a 2017 article on the National Geographic website, over 500 million straws are used daily by Americans alone. Realistically, this amounts to a mere fraction of all the plastic waste that pollutes our global oceans and beaches.
A single straw is just a tiny presence — kind of like a person. But size is precisely what makes a plastic drinking straw so dangerous, because it can injure marine life in all sorts of distressing ways.
Take, for example, a 2015 viral video that showed scientists attempting to help a sea turtle with a plastic straw embedded in its nose. Little Ava likely never saw this troubling footage, but even a child understands what it means to harm a fellow creature.
So as a young customer of popular UK-based restaurant chain Pizza Express, Ava decided to make her voice heard. She’d noticed the chain’s habitual use of plastic drinking straws, and she decided to compose a letter explaining her reservations.
“I am writing to you to ask if you could stop using plastic straws because they are very bad for animals,” read the girl’s handwritten note. “They can get stuck in their mouths and noses.”
Ava then proposed a sensible solution, asking the chain to offer these straws only upon customer request. “I don’t want any animals to get sick,” she reasoned.
It seems Pizza Express definitely got the message. The restaurant group — which currently has over 470 locations throughout the United Kingdom, and 100 overseas in other countries — recently announced its decision to use biodegradable paper straws instead.
The organization’s official statement was posted on its Facebook page. This was presented alongside a snapshot of Ava’s actual letter.
As a Pizza Express spokesperson explained, “We pride ourselves on listening to our customers.” The reply detailed company plans to phase out single-use plastic straws from all 470+ of its restaurants entirely.
For those doubting the actual origins of Ava’s note, Pizza Express also issued a follow-up assertion. “For the record, Ava’s letter is genuine,” it declared.
The organization also called it “truly amazing and wonderful that somebody so young wrote to us with such a caring and compassionate message.”
Even certain comments in the resulting discussion thread appeared to confirm the authenticity of Ava’s heartfelt effort.
Louise Austin said, “As an ex-employee, I can guarantee this is genuine.” Her comment went on to explain that positive and negative customer feedback is typically reviewed during monthly company meetings.
To date, thousands have liked, supported, and shared news of the Pizza Express decision. And to think it all started with a 5-year-old little girl who simply wanted to help protect her fellow creatures all across the Earth.
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