Yum! Brands Inc. recently marked the fifth year of its World Hunger Relief program, and aims to raise more than $25 million this year.
Through volunteering, a public relations campaign and soliciting donations worldwide, the Louisville, Ky.-based parent of more than 38,000 KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut restaurants has become the largest private-sector donor to the United Nations’ World Food Programme via World Hunger Relief, said Jonathan Blum, Yum senior vice president and chief public-affairs officer.
The efforts help feed impoverished and hungry people around the world, partly with the nonprofit organization’s nutrition-fortified biscuits.
Blum has traveled with other Yum executives to see the World Food Programme in action in places like Haiti, Guatemala and Sudan. He said the company will continue to leverage its size and scale to make World Hunger Relief central to its purpose.
He recently spoke with Nation’s Restaurant News after returning from Kenya, where he saw firsthand how hunger-relief efforts are needed in the country’s slums, refugee camps and remote tribal areas.
How much money is Yum attempting to raise this year for World Hunger Relief?
Our goal is to raise $27 million this year, which would put us well in excess of $100 million for five years. We have purchased about 350 million meals in that time for the World Food Programme, to be given primarily to children and women starving to death in remote corners of the world. The World Food Programme is often the only lifeline for these people.
For our customers, 100 percent of every donation they make goes to buying food. The Yum Foundation covers the 7-percent administrative fee the World Food Programme has for overhead.
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