Lt. Governor Anthony Brown, Maryland Food Bank and KFC Raise Awareness to End Hunger in Maryland

Dozens of KFC Employees from Baltimore Region Join Lieutenant Governor Volunteer Time at Maryland Food Bank

 

BALTIMORE, Md. (October 20, 2009) – Earlier today, Lt. Governor Anthony Brown, KFC employees from the Baltimore Region and representatives from the Maryland Food Bank participated in an event to raise awareness about hunger in Maryland. Lt. Governor Brown and the KFC team will work with the staff at the Maryland Food Bank to package needed food items to feed hungry Marylanders.

“I applaud KFC and the Maryland Food Bank on partnering to bring awareness to world hunger through their volunteer program,” said Lt. Governor Brown. “Here in Maryland, we set ambitious goals, including a goal to end childhood hunger by 2015. With the help of volunteers and the dedication of KFC and the Maryland Food Bank, we can conquer this important issue together and stand up for the most vulnerable among us.”

Earlier this year, Governor Martin O’Malley announced an ambitious effort to end childhood hunger in Maryland by 2015. To reach this goal, the O’Malley-Brown Administration has supported school meals programs and have held events in various parts of the state to raise awareness about the importance of providing all children with balanced and healthy meals so they can reach their full potential.

Global hunger has reached epic proportions this year due to the convergence of the global economic slowdown; high food prices; increased competition for products that produce energy; severe droughts and floods due to climate change; and increasing demand from growing economies in Asia and South America. There are currently more than 1 billion people who go hungry every day in the world.

“KFC is honored to work with Lt. Governor Brown to raise awareness of the issue of hunger, both in Maryland and around the world,” explained KFC President Roger Eaton. “From employees to customers, KFC is passionate about motivating and educating everyone who is in a position to help the more than one billion undernourished people in the world today.”

KFC’s participation today is one of many events taking place across the country as part of the company’s World Hunger Relief efforts. Restaurants from Philadelphia to Los Angeles have been temporarily closed and converted into “World Hunger Relief Kitchens” during the lunch rush. At the events, employees fed hundreds of needy residents from area shelters. The store closings are aimed at not only feeding the hungry but also raising awareness for fundraising efforts. Other restaurants are participating in events ranging from canned food drives to car wash fundraisers.

Yum! Brands, the world’s largest restaurant company and parent of KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, recently launched its annual World Hunger Relief campaign to help stop world hunger. World Hunger Relief is the world’s largest private sector hunger relief effort, spanning 110 countries, 36,000 restaurants and over one million employees. The coordinated campaign aims to raise awareness, volunteerism and funds for the United Nations World Food Programme and other hunger relief agencies.

The Maryland Food Bank has facilities in Baltimore and Salisbury comprising nearly 107,000 square feet of warehouse, refrigerator and freezer space. The Maryland Food Bank, now in its 30th year of operation, distributes more than 18.6 million pounds of food annually through its statewide network of food distribution agencies.

Since Yum! Brands and KFC’s World Hunger Relief efforts launched in 2007, more than one million of the company’s employees, franchisees and their families have volunteered more than nine million hours to aid hunger relief efforts in communities worldwide. The effort has raised $36 million for the World Food Programme and other hunger relief organizations and is helping to provide approximately 160 million meals and save the lives of about four million people in remote corners of the world.

Yum! and its brands have been fighting hunger for more than a decade by donating over $46 million of prepared food annually to the underprivileged in the United States. Since the company went public in 1997, it has donated more than $550 million of its food to hunger relief agencies in the U.S.

View more photos from this event.

 

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