World Hunger Relief


' annual World Hunger Relief campaign is the world's largest private sector hunger relief effort to raise awareness, volunteerism and funds to benefit the United Nations World Food Programme and other hunger relief agencies. The relief effort involved the entire Yum! Brands system, which is spread in over 130 countries, involving more than 43,000 KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell restaurants and 1.5 million associates.

Overview

For the World Hunger Relief, Yum has used all its restaurants to raise money for WFP and encourages its employees around the world to participate in the initiative. Since the program launched in 2007, nearly 1.5 million of Yum! Brands' employees, franchisees and their families have volunteered millions of hours to aid hunger relief efforts. The effort has also raised $640 million for the WFP and other hunger relief organizations and is helping to provide nearly 2.4 billion nutritious meals in 43 countries. It is focused on school feeding programs as well as emergency operations support and mother-child health and nutrition programs.

Partnerships

Singer Christina Aguilera, who is a WFP Ambassador Against Hunger, also appears on the World Hunger Relief web site and in other online hunger relief efforts.

History

To commemorate its tenth anniversary in 2007, Yum! Brands' partnered with the United Nations World Food Programme to create their annual World Hunger Relief effort, which seeks to raise awareness, volunteerism, and funds for the WFP and other hunger relief organizations. During the launch, David Novak, Yum's chairman and CEO stated, "We are looking for a unifying big idea to galvanize the whole organization." The program to address hunger on a global scale was seen as appropriate for an organization who has been feeding people through its food outlets. The partnership started when a Yum executive in charge of the search for the firm's "noble cause" found that every four seconds, somewhere in the world a child dies from hunger. WFP was chosen since it is the world's largest feeding organization.
At the Clinton Global Initiative in 2008, Yum! Brands pledged to: raise and donate at least $80 million to help WFP and others provide 200 million meals for hungry school children in developing countries; donate 20 million hours of hunger relief volunteer service in the communities in which it operates; donate $200 million worth of its prepared food to hunger agencies in the United States and use the company's marketing clout to generate awareness of the hunger problem, and convince others to become part of the solution.
In 2012, World Food Program USA honored Christina Aguilera and Yum! Brands' Chairman and CEO, David C. Novak, at the State Department with the George McGovern Leadership Award for their work with Yum! Brands' World Hunger Relief campaigns.