Yum! Brands leads as part of UN World Food Programme

Yum! Brands leads as part of UN World Food Programme
Tags: Operations Management, Pizza Hut
December 17, 2009

Pizza Hut parent Yum! Brands' World Hunger Relief effort with multi-Grammy Award winner Christina Aguilera as the campaign's global spokesperson has created widespread awareness and deeper engagement to benefit the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and other hunger relief agencies.

As the world's largest volunteer movement and private sector hunger relief effort, more than 1.4 million employees, franchisees and their families volunteered six million hours to aid hunger relief efforts in communities worldwide. The fall campaign has raised more than $22.5 million and counting in overall donations from employees and consumers for WFP and other hunger relief agencies.

"It is incomprehensible that more than 1 billion people go to bed hungry every day," said David Novak, chairman and CEO, Yum! Brands Inc. "As the world's largest restaurant company, we believe it is our privilege and responsibility to make a difference in the lives of others less fortunate who are starving around the globe."

Officials from WFP, the largest humanitarian agency in the fight against hunger worldwide, are determining specifics on how and where their funds will be used with Yum! donating the first $1 million to WFP's relief operations in El Salvador. The Yum! Foundation is covering the WFP's administrative fees so that funds collected online and at its restaurants will go directly toward feeding some of the world's poorest people, particularly school children around the globe. Every U.S. dollar raised feeds four hungry children.

In its third year, Yum's World Hunger Relief campaign has leveraged the power of its global system. Campaign highlights include:

Yum! is co-leading the Business Council to End Global Hunger to encourage others in business, trade associations and the private sector to develop and support an advocacy initiative and comprehensive strategy with the U.S. government to end global hunger.
Pizza Hut U.S. worked with star wide receiver Roy Williams who caught passes thrown by fans at a Dallas Pizza Hut in exchange for donations to WFP. Taco Bell U.S. partnered with NBA legend Dikembe Mutombo who visited an Atlanta-area Taco Bell and invited customers to make donations.

Yum! generated the equivalent of nearly $50 million in awareness of the hunger issue through a PSA, advertising, public relations, web-based communications and in-restaurant posters. In addition, the company leveraged the power of the Internet and social media to reach millions of people through the campaign's website, FromHungertoHope.com, and other on-line activity such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, ThinkMTV, YouTube and others.

Since World Hunger Relief launched in 2007, more than 1.4 million of the company's employees, franchisees and their families have volunteered more than 15 million hours to aid hunger relief efforts in communities worldwide. The effort has raised nearly $60 million for WFP and other hunger relief organizations.