Yum! Brands Adopts Nicaragua Community; Launches New Employee “Feed the World Ambassador Program” for World Hunger Relief

Louisville, KY, October 1, 2015 /3BL Media/ – 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).

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.