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.
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.