Red Lobster 1999 Annual Report Download - page 24

Corporate Responsibility
45
Disaster Relief
We try to provide aid and support whenever disaster
strikes and a community needs us most. Through a com-
bination of employee contributions and volunteerism,
gifts in kind, and supplier and corporate donations, we
work to help communities, providing relief for victims of
recent hurricanes, tornadoes, fires and floods.
Supporting Kids
National Center for Fathering
In response to the dramatic trend toward fatherlessness
in America, the National Center for Fathering, based in
Shawnee Mission, Kansas, was founded to conduct
research on fathering and to inspire and equip men to
be better fathers. Darden Restaurants Foundation’s
multi-year contribution supported the organization’s
essential operations and also helped develop and
expand its web site, which now includes a chat room
and online information-ordering capabilities.
PACE Center
An early-intervention, educational program for at-risk
teens, Orlando’s PACE Center provides a remarkable
alternative to institutionalization or incarceration (in
1998, the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, for
the second year in a row, rated PACE number one out
of 491 such agencies in Florida). Darden Restaurants
Foundation has been a long-time supporter of this
uniquely successful program.
Citizens Caring for Children, Inc.
Spearheaded by Red Lobster Director of Operations
Tony Morales, and based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma,
the Company’s support of CCC illustrates the value of
our multi-layered approach. With the help of Tony’s
board membership, active volunteerism on the part of
employees, and solid corporate and foundation support,
this foster care organization provides needed care and
services to orphaned children, as well as those removed
or separated from their parents.
Cops & Lobsters
Law enforcement officials around the country and in
Canada spend an evening in our restaurants as celebrity
servers as part of Red Lobster’s uniquely successful
Cops & Lobsters fundraising program, which this
year raised more than $1 million to benefit the
Special Olympics.
Left: The Doyle-Risi Ferrari 333SP is not only
a symbol of Italian quality and innovation — like
Olive Garden itself — it’s also Olive Garden’s
ambassador for the “Drive Against Hunger”
program that supports local food banks.
Dennis Franz (second from right), Emmy-award winning actor and
star of ABC-TV’s NYPD Blue and Red Lobster’s EVP of Marketing
Wyman Roberts, present the million-dollar Cops & Lobsters check
to L.A. police officer Dan Mastro and Willie Myles, a 15-year-old
Special Olympics athlete.
Left: Drew Madsen (third from right), Olive Garden’s Executive Vice
President of Marketing and Charlie Wilkinson (far right), a Director of
Operations for Olive Garden’s Atlanta Division, present a 24-foot
refrigerated truck to the Atlanta Community Food Bank.