GLENDALE Calif. The nearly 1,400-unit IHOP family-dining chain will offer guests a free short stack of buttermilk pancakes on Tuesday in honor of National Pancake Day and as part of an annual fundraiser for the Children’s Miracle Network and other charities.
From 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., participating IHOP restaurants will offer free buttermilk pancakes, asking guests to donate what they might have paid, or more, to their local children’s hospital or another worthy cause. Participating restaurants also will sell Miracle Balloons for $1 each, which will be personalized and displayed at the restaurant, as a fundraiser for the Children’s Miracle Network, a nonprofit that supports children’s hospitals.
This is the fourth year IHOP has offered the free-pancake event, which last year raised more than $875,000. This year company officials hope to raise $1 million in donations.
Tuesday is Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday or Shrove Tuesday, marking the day before Lent begins. Pancakes were historically a traditional pre-Lenten meal to use up the supply of eggs, milk, butter and other dairy products once forbidden by some religions during the period of fasting or self-sacrifice.
IHOP is franchised and operated by Glendale, Calif.-based DineEquity Inc.
Contact Lisa Jennings at [email protected].