Yum! Brands Announces 2015 Global Volunteerism Awards

Yum! Brands announced its 2015 global volunteer program awarded 60 volunteer grants with a total value of $325,000 USD, including a $25,000 grand prize volunteer grant to The Healing Place in Louisville, KY. Employees from 20 countries tracked over 40,000 volunteer hours working with their favorite charities on more than 150 community impact projects in 2015.

Yum! Brands’ Volunteer for Hope program encourages the Company’s 1.5 million associates and franchisees to give back to the communities where they live and work through volunteerism. Yum! employees anywhere in the world can participate in the program by selecting a local charity partner and identifying a project that will serve their needs. The Yum! Brands Foundation supports employee volunteer efforts by funding those projects up to $5,000 and then recognizes the projects that made the largest impact in local communities at the end of the year with additional grant prizes.

The grand prize volunteer grant was awarded to The Healing Place in Louisville, KY in recognition of a volunteer project led by the Pizza Hut team in Louisville in 2015. Founded as a homeless shelter in 1989, The Healing Place has become one of the nation's most effective long-term, social model recovery programs. Volunteer Team Captain, Nicholas Price is a Senior Help Desk Specialist and has been with the company for nearly three years. More importantly, Nicholas is an alumni of The Healing Place program. His experience with the organization inspired him and his team to become more involved through a volunteer project. Nicholas’ team helped feed over 1,500 men and women (a total of 2,400 pizza slices), saving the organization thousands of dollars so they could focus on other homeless and recovery programs.

Nicholas remembers one particular pizza delivery, “There were 10 or so female clients standing outside the entrance. As soon as we got out of the car with the pizza they all started screaming "YAY! PIZZA!". Anything we can do to brighten their day and maybe help them to stay another day to complete The Healing Place program is a success in my book.” This project has inspired others to join the cause and the team has grown to 50 volunteers as they continue monthly pizza deliveries to The Healing Place in 2016. “We are very grateful for this generous gift from the Yum! Brands Foundation and are extremely proud of Nick. At The Healing Place, one of the core values we teach is giving back to others. When Nick and his team come to our campus every month, they are doing more than putting a slice of pizza on the plate; they are showing our clients what giving back really looks like.” states Doug Scott, Major Gifts Officer at The Healing Place

“We were moved by Nicholas’ story and his team’s ability to turn a $1,000 grant into a $25,000 grand prize winning project. Nicholas clearly has a huge heart and we’re happy to recognize his volunteer efforts with The Healing Place. This grant could not come at a better time with the organization going through a campaign to fund a new facility. We hope this grant will raise awareness for The Healing Place and encourage others to support them however possible,” said Laura Melillo Barnum of the Yum! Brands Foundation.

Additional global volunteerism grants were awarded to teams from KFC Russia ($20,000), KFC Turkey ($10,000) and KFC U.S. ($5,000).

To learn more about Yum! Brands Volunteer for Hope initiative please visit, www.volunteer4hope.com.