LOUISVILLE, Ky.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Yum! Brands (NYSE: YUM), the world’s largest restaurant company
and parent of KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, announced today that it is
directing the first $1 million from its World Hunger Relief global
effort to provide food to families affected by hunger and suffering the
effects of drought in the Horn of Africa. The funds will help the United
Nations World Food Programme (WFP) feed those in urgent need of food
assistance.
David Novak, Chairman and CEO, Yum! Brands, Inc., serves milk to children at the Leovigildo Pineda Cardona community school in Santa Rita, Honduras, on Tuesday as part of the Company's annual World Hunger Relief effort launching this fall. Novak, other senior executives and franchise leaders from KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and Yum! Restaurants International traveled to Honduras to help the United Nations World Food Programme's relief efforts in the country. (Photo: Business Wire)
Drought coupled with high food prices and conflict in the Horn of Africa
is affecting more than 13 million people. WFP is rapidly moving
life-saving food and nutritional products by sea, air and road to hungry
populations in Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Djibouti, and Somalia to address
their needs. In Somalia alone, WFP is feeding 1.5 million people in the
northern and central parts of the country and in Mogadishu which
continues to fill up with those fleeing the famine zone.
“The situation throughout the Horn of Africa is desperate and we all
need to help,” said David Novak, Chairman and CEO, Yum! Brands, Inc. “As
a company with a huge heart, we believe it is critical to immediately
commit the first $1 million from our World Hunger Relief effort to aid
the people throughout the Horn of Africa.”
Novak and other senior executives and franchise leaders from KFC, Pizza
Hut, Taco Bell and Yum! Restaurants International traveled to Honduras
earlier this week to help WFP’s relief efforts in the country. As the
second poorest country in Central America, Honduras is one of the many
recipients of funds raised through World Hunger Relief.
There are nearly 1 billion hungry people around the world today. Hunger
and malnutrition are the number one risk to health worldwide - greater
than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined.
Yum! Brands’ annual fall World Hunger Relief effort is the world’s
largest private sector hunger relief initiative, spanning 110 countries,
38,000 KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell restaurants and over one million
employees, to raise awareness, volunteerism and funds for WFP and other
hunger relief agencies. Multi-Grammy Award winner Christina Aguilera,
the effort’s global spokesperson, will appear in a new public service
announcement this fall as well as advertising, online efforts and
posters in KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell restaurants. Consumers can visit www.fromhungertohope.com
or donate in the restaurants this fall. Every U.S. dollar raised will go
directly towards WFP’s operations to fight hunger around the world.
Since World Hunger Relief launched in 2007, more than one million of the
Company’s employees, franchisees and their families have volunteered
more than 21 million hours to aid hunger relief efforts in communities
worldwide. The effort has raised nearly $85 million for WFP and other
hunger relief organizations and is helping to provide over 350 million
meals and save the lives of millions of people in remote corners of the
world.
Yum! Brands, Inc., based in Louisville, Ky., is the world’s largest
restaurant company in terms of system restaurants with approximately
38,000 restaurants in more than 110 countries and territories. The
company is ranked #214 on the Fortune 500 List, with revenues of more
than $11 billion in 2010. Four of the company’s restaurant brands - KFC,
Pizza Hut, Long John Silver’s and Taco Bell - are the global leaders of
the chicken, quick-service seafood, pizza and Mexican-style food
categories. A&W Restaurants is the longest running quick-service
franchise chain in America. Outside the United States, the Yum! Brands
system opened approximately four new restaurants each day of the year,
making it a leader in international retail development. The Company has
consistently been recognized for its reward and recognition culture,
diversity leadership, community giving, and consistent shareholder
returns.
WFP is the largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide. Each
year, on average, WFP feeds more than 90 million people in more than 70
countries. For more information, visit www.wfp.org.
Source: Yum! Brands, Inc.
Contact:
Yum! Brands, Inc.
Virginia Ferguson, 502-874-8200