MIAMI (CBSMiami) — There’s nothing like a short stack of pancakes, slathered in butter and drenched with syrup. If you can afford the calories, you can definitely afford the price because Tuesday, Feb. 5th is National Pancake Day when one major national pancake chain wants to feed you flapjacks for free.

On what they’ve dubbed National Pancake Day, IHOP restaurants across South Florida and nationwide will be offering anyone who walks through the door a free short stack of buttermilk pancakes from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. as part of a fundraising effort for the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.

In exchange for the free pancakes, IHOP asks customers to donate what they would have paid for the pancakes, or more, to the Children’s Miracle Network.  In South Florida, the money raised goes to Miami Children’s Hospital.

The free pancake offer is no small undertaking for the restaurant chain. This marks the eighth year IHOP has flipped free flapjacks for charity, and they plan to give away more than five million pancakes.

IHOP hopes the program in 2013 will raise $3 million for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.

In the first seven years, they’ve raised more than $10 million through National Pancake Day.

For more information about IHOP’s National Pancake Day, or to learn more about Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and make an online donation, visit http://www.ihoppancakeday.com/.

And did you know that Pancake Day is a tradition that dates back several centuries to when the English prepped for fasting during Lent. Strict rules prohibited the eating of all dairy products during Lent, so pancakes were made to use up the supply of eggs, milk, butter and other dairy products, hence the name Pancake Tuesday, or Shrove Tuesday.