With the recent nationwide E. coli scare at Chipotle, many customers have been refraining from eating Chipotle burritos. Over 500 people in 13 different states fell ill.

Stock values for Chipotle plummeted, trading 40 percent lower than its record high last year.

After temporarily closing on Feb. 8 for a food safety meeting at its over 2000 locations, Chipotle is attempting to make a comeback and redeem itself from its tarnished image.

As part of its comeback strategy, Chipotle announced that it is investing $10 million in local farmers to maintain its commitment to ethically grown and sourced food.

To further woo customers back to their silvery counters, Chipotle offered customers a free burrito Feb. 8.

To make up for Chipotle closing that day and potentially ruining your lunch plans, all you had to do was text “RAINCHECK” to 888-222, and you would have received a text back with a voucher for a free burrito, expiring at the end of the month.

For some CHS students, free food is enough of a reason to forgive Chipotle.

“I think Chipotle is popular enough that people will take advantage of the free burrito and not worry too much about it,” senior Rachel Stackhouse said.

Some still remain squeamish about food poisoning.

“It’s nice of Chipotle to give out free burritos, but I’m still a bit skeptical about eating there after everything that has happened,” junior Ally Porter said.  

Some are too ardent of Chipotle-goers to have even stopped going during the E. coli scare,

“I love Chipotle too much to have stopped frequenting it,” senior Jonathan Schwartzman said. “I figured it was worth the risk.”