Red Lobster 1999 Annual Report Download - page 25

Corporate Responsibility
46
Celebrating Diversity
Association to Preserve the Eatonville
Community (PEC)
The nation’s oldest incorporated African-American
community, Eatonville, Florida, is located near Darden’s
Restaurant Support Center in Orlando. To help preserve
and promote the area’s rich heritage, both the
Foundation and Corporation support the Association to
Preserve the Eatonville Community (PEC), which organizes
the widely recognized annual Zora Neale Hurston
Festival and provides educational and cultural activities
for Eatonville kids and their families.
National Conference for Community and Justice
(NCCJ)
Darden is the national founding sponsor of the NCCJ
Walk As One walk-a-thon, and this year the Darden
Restaurants Foundation made a three-year $250,000
commitment to benefit this unique program focused on
promoting racial harmony. Through a series of organized
walks for young people held in 11 major metropolitan
areas around the country (with large contingencies of
restaurants), the NCCJ promotes racial harmony,
understanding and justice.
In Roads
In an effort to encourage entrepreneurial endeavors on
the part of minorities, the Company has implemented the
In Roads program, which provides minority students with
summer employment, scholarships, mentoring and basic
business skills.
Beyond the Veil
This collection of high-end, African-American master-
pieces was exhibited at the Cornell Fine Arts Institute
of Rollins College, in Winter Park, Florida, in conjunction
with the annual Zora Neale Hurston festival, and provid-
ed the community with a rare opportunity for viewing
works by nationally recognized African-American artists.
Community Alliance Project
Through our Community Alliance Project, Darden’s
Diversity Management Department has partnered with
local and national not-for-profit organizations — includ-
ing the Urban League, the NAACP, the National Council
for Community and Justice, and the African-American,
Asian-American and Hispanic-American Chambers of
Commerce — to provide opportunities for employees
throughout the U.S. to support diversity efforts at the
local level.
Protecting the Environment
Through the Darden Environmental Trust, the Darden
Restaurants Foundation supports organizations dedicated
to protecting and preserving the natural environment so
it can be enjoyed by communities today and long into
the future. Foundation grants focus on programs that
enhance and reclaim fragile environments, preserve
natural areas and habitats, and build public awareness
of the importance of environmental stewardship.
University of Rhode Island Sea Grant
In collaboration with the National Marine Fishery Service,
the Trust contributed funds to this project, designed to
enhance the lobster populations at Narragansett Bay,
Rhode Island, in the wake of damage caused by a
1989 tanker grounding. The restoration project aimed
to recreate the area’s marine life environment and its
pre-disaster economic health.
Nature Conservancy
Through the Conservancy, the Trust funded the Blowing
Rocks Preserve project, which restored a significant
portion of Jupiter Island’s (Florida) remaining natural
habitat, directly benefiting the adjacent Indian River
Lagoon. The project also served as a premier example of
the benefits and techniques of the restoration process to
other organizations, including state and federal agencies.
Florida Audubon Society
Through the Florida Audubon Society, the Center for
Birds of Prey in Central Florida provides a unique
rehab/way station for recovering species of birds of prey.
The Darden Environmental Trust is building a new
teaching gazebo that extends onto Lake Sybelia, from
which visitors can get a panoramic view of the
center and its inhabitants.
The Darden Environmental Trust is helping fund and support the
Nature Conservancy’s habitat restoration project at Blowing Rocks
Preserve along the Indian River Lagoon on Florida’s east coast.