Yum! Brands Inaugural "world Hunger Relief Week" Efforts Spur Unprecedented Global Awareness; Four Million Volunteer Hours And $15 Million In Overall
Effort Will Help United Nations World Food Programme Save 400,000 Lives And Has Become The World's Largest Volunteer Movement For Hunger Engaging 1 Million Employees, Franchisees, Their Families And Customers Across Nearly 35,000 Kfc, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell Restuarants In 100+ Countries
December 20, 2007 // Franchising.com // LOUISVILLE, KY., - Yum! Brands, Inc.'s (NYSE: YUM) inaugural "World Hunger Relief Week" (October 14-20, 2007), which focused on raising global awareness of hunger issues, volunteerism and donations to benefit the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), has now become the world's largest public-private effort ever to combat hunger.
Nearly one million Yum! employees, franchisees and their families volunteered approximately four million volunteer hours to aid hunger relief efforts in communities worldwide, while helping to raise some $15 million throughout the World Hunger Relief Week initiative.
"From every corner of the world, our employees, franchisees, their families and customers have started a movement that will truly impact the ongoing fight against hunger and make a difference in the lives of so many in need," said David Novak, Yum's chairman and chief executive officer. "I'm incredibly proud of the overwhelming global response to World Hunger Relief Week which transformed into the world's largest volunteer effort to fight world hunger. Through our efforts we are feeding and saving the lives of more than 400,000 children, moving them from hunger to hope," added Novak.
Officials from WFP, the world's frontline agency in the fight against hunger, are determining specifics on how and where their funds will be used, but have already earmarked one million dollars to provide emergency hunger relief in Somalia -- making Yum! Brands the largest corporate-generated donation ever provided to that operation. The funds from World Hunger Relief Week, which were raised at grassroots events, in restaurants, online and by employees, will be unrestricted so that they impact those in greatest need. For example, WFP estimates a million dollars can provide enough food in Colombia to avoid a break in food distribution for six months, or ensure that more than 10 million meals are provided to school children around the world.
"This initiative has set the standard for outreach to raise public awareness about hunger," said Josette Sheeran, WFP executive director. "It comes as we face a 'perfect storm' of challenges around the world, where climate change is combining with a boom in commodity prices, slipping levels of food aid, and the scourge of HIV/AIDS are increasing the vulnerability of growing numbers of people. Yum! Brands efforts will allow us to help save lives - the fundamental goal we all share."
Yum!'s inaugural World Hunger Relief Week leveraged the power of its global system of approximately 35,000 restaurants. The company generated $50 million worth of awareness of the hunger problem and solution through public relations, advertising, public service announcements, in-store posters, online activities and word-of-mouth outreach, including:
* A new Web site, www.fromhungertohope.com, has generated more than 10 million visitors from 183 countries, or 95 percent of all countries on earth;
* Celebrities, sports figures and musicians volunteered their time to fight hunger, including those in the U.S. like actor Mario Lopez, Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt (of MTV's "The Hills"), Detroit Lions' Roy Williams, Hannah Montana's Mylie Cyrus and more;
* Ads, public service announcements and in-store materials raising awareness about global hunger were created in nine languages and utilized across myriad media worldwide;
* Nearly one million employees, franchisees and family members volunteered during the week to help raise funds for WFP and/or support local hunger relief efforts in their communities, by donating an estimated four million volunteer hours to the cause.
Yum! Brands supports hunger relief efforts year round, and funds are expected to continue to be raised online and in various locations globally through the end of 2007 before first year efforts are officially tallied, with plans for forthcoming efforts underway.
About World Food Programme
Established in 1963, WFP is the United Nations frontline agency in the fight against global hunger. WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency: on average, each year, the agency gives food to 90 million poor people to meet their nutritional needs, including 58 million hungry children, in 80 of the world's poorest countries.
Yum! Brands, Inc.
Yum! Brands Inc., based in Louisville, Kentucky, is the world's largest restaurant company in terms of system restaurants with over 35,000 restaurants, which includes over 2,000 licensed restaurants, in more than 100 countries and territories. Four of the company's restaurant brands -- KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and Long John Silver's -- are the global leaders of the chicken, pizza, Mexican-style food and quick-service seafood categories respectively. Yum! Brands is the worldwide leader in multibranding, which offers consumers more choice and convenience at one restaurant location from a combination of KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, A&W or Long John Silver's brands. The company and its franchisees today operate over 3,500 multibrand restaurants. Outside the United States in 2006, the Yum! Brands' system opened about three new restaurants each day of the year, making it one of the fastest growing retailers in the world. For the past four years, the company has been recognized as one of Fortune Magazine's "Top 50 Employers for Minorities." It also has been recognized as one of the "Top 50 Employers for Women" by Fortune, one of the "40 Best Companies for Diversity" by Black Enterprise Magazine for the past three years, one of Black Enterprise Magazine's "30 Hottest Franchises for 2006," one of the "Corporate 100 Companies Providing Opportunities for Hispanics" by Hispanic Magazine, one of the "Top 50 Corporations for Supplier Diversity" by Hispanic Trends Magazine and by BusinessWeek as one of the "Top 15 Companies for In-Kind Corporate Philanthropy."
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