Life & Work with Leighanne Henderson of Downtown Allegan

Today we’d like to introduce you to Leighanne Henderson

Hi LeighAnne , it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I was a single mom of 3 boys working a 3rd shift job and I wanted more time with my kids so I applied for manager position at my local Pizza Hut. I worked at Allegan Pizza Hut before transferred to Holland Pizza Hut as they needed help. I became the Restaurant General Manager while there and ran it for a year before being going to get another store. I then decided to move to North Carolina where I worked for another franchise. I started as a shift but quickly became the Restaurant General Manager there. I worked there until June of 2020 as I had a 9 month old I didn’t want to chance bringing Covid home to her or the other kids so I opened a shop out of my house making custom items with vinyl and sublimation. While I North Carolina I had married and had my daughter, my husband was a Marine so when his contract was up we moved back home to Michigan in 2021. I ran my business until we decided to divorce and so as a single mom of 4 now I needed to have something consistent so I began working at Pizza Hut part time while I went to school. I came back March of 2023 and by December of 2023 I was promoted to Restaurant General Manager again. I have been in this role for a year now. I have remarried, had vocal surgery, do PTO, and volunteer in my community while bringing awareness and helping anywhere I can. Some of the amazing stuff we do here is School lunch program. Every other Friday we do 130 pizzas by 10am and deliver them to 6 different schools. The other Friday we deliver about 65 pizzas to 3 schools, every other Monday we do about 45 to 2 schools and Monday through Friday we send about 25 pizzas to 1 school (this was included in the above numbers). I also organize as many fundraisers as I can for the community at Pizza Hut. We donate pizzas and certificates to organizations for multiple reasons. While Pizza Hut is a corporation I run this restuarant as if it is my own small business.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Within 2 weeks of being promoted this time around I had vocal surgery and was unable to speak above a whisper for 2 weeks which is hard with 6 kids and in a pizza place. I was also planning a wedding for June, and have been running short staffed just like most everyone so often times working 50+ hr weeks. In May i found out my vocal issues were due to allergies and I was allergic to many things the biggest struggle of them all was yeast as I work with yeast in our pizza dough.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am the Restaurant General Manager of Allegan Pizza Hut. I am in charge of everything; the hiring, firing, ordering, scheduling, inventory etc. My Restaurant is the only corporate business in downtown Allegan for the most part so working with the local businesses in our small town is crucial. My past predecessors failed to realize this. I partner with all the local small town businesses, I shop small whenever I can not only for me but for my Restaurant as well like goodies for my crew or presents for birthdays and celebrations such as graduation or marriage. As a boss I recognize my crew for their achievements whether in personal life or work. I am known in my community for many things, I am known for my work at Pizza Hut but also being the PTO president, on Policy Council for Headstart and all other groups I have volunteered at over the years.

How do you think about luck?
I have had good luck on the timing of things to land me in my role a time or 2.