LOUISVILLE, Ky.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE: YUM) announced it has adopted the community of
Jinotega, Nicaragua, as part of the Company’s new Feed the World
Ambassador Program. The new employee leadership program is part of the
Company’s global World Hunger Relief effort that raises awareness,
volunteerism and donations for the United Nations World Food Programme
(WFP).
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Greg Creed, Chief Executive Officer of Yum! Brands, serves food to children in a community in Jinotega, Nicaragua, last week. Creed and a team of Yum! employees were on a humanitarian trip in Nicaragua as part of the Company’s Feed the World Ambassador Program. The new employee leadership program is part of the Company’s global World Hunger Relief effort that raises awareness, volunteerism and funds for the United Nations World Food Programme and others. Visit HungertoHope.com. Photo Credit: Yum! Brands
The Feed the World Ambassador Program is a way for Yum! employees to
fight global hunger and make a lasting impact in a community in need.
Each year, a team of selected Yum! Ambassadors have the unique
opportunity to travel to an adopted community and evaluate
infrastructure improvements the Company can support. The Ambassadors
work with WFP to determine improvement projects and costs and then
launch fundraising efforts to support the specific community projects.
“We’re a company with a Huge Heart and it’s our privilege and
responsibility to Feed the World by making a difference in global
hunger,” said Greg Creed, Chief Executive Officer, Yum! Brands.
“Witnessing WFP’s life-saving efforts in developing countries like
Nicaragua is humbling. I’m hopeful our new employee campaign will give
those less fortunate a hand up and create long-term change in
communities around the world.”
Creed and a team of Yum! Ambassadors recently traveled to Jinotega,
Nicaragua, one of the poorest countries in Latin America. Creed and the
Yum! Ambassadors met with local leaders and WFP to identify how the
Company could help several communities and schools in the Jinotega
region. They also spoke with teachers and parents and prepared and
served meals to children at local schools. The Yum! team is raising
funds this year to help communities in the region build pre-school
classrooms and bathrooms; upgrade their school cafeterias, storage and
cooking facilities; provide essential classroom items such as student
desks, white boards and supplies; and install sustainable irrigation
systems and school gardens, among other things.
“Yum! Brands brings so much to our fight against hunger,” said Jay
Aldous, Director of Private Sector Partnerships, WFP. “What is so
inspiring is the commitment Yum! employees have in working toward a
world with zero hunger. The Feed the World Ambassador Program is yet
another example of this genuine desire to make an impact and change
lives.”
The new employee leadership program builds on the Company’s legacy of
supporting hunger relief initiatives. Yum! Brands’ World Hunger Relief
effort is the world’s largest private sector hunger relief initiative,
spanning more than 125 countries, over 41,000 KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco
Bell restaurants and 1.5 million associates. Since it began in 2007, the
effort has raised more than $600 million in cash and food donations for
WFP and other hunger relief organizations and provided 2.4 billion
nutritious meals for those in need.
Yum! also addresses hunger in the U.S. through its Harvest program.
Since 1992, the Company’s brands have contributed more than 176 million
pounds of food to over 3,000 nonprofit organizations for those at risk
of hunger in the U.S. Since its launch over two decades ago, Yum!
Harvest has become the largest prepared-food donation program in the
world. The Company continues to expand the program globally.
Yum! Brands, Inc., based in Louisville, Kentucky, has over 41,000
restaurants in more than 125 countries and territories. Yum! is ranked
#228 on the Fortune 500 List with revenues of over $13 billion in 2014
and is one of the Aon Hewitt Top Companies for Leaders in North America.
The Company’s restaurant brands – KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell – are the
global leaders of the chicken, pizza and Mexican-style food categories.
Outside the United States, the Yum! Brands system opens over five new
restaurants per day on average, making it a leader in international
retail development.
WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger
worldwide, delivering food assistance in emergencies and working with
communities to improve nutrition and build resilience. Each year, WFP
assists some 80 million people in around 80 countries.
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Yum! Brands, Inc.
Virginia Ferguson, 502-874-8200
Source: Yum! Brands, Inc.