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Foundations Paper

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Foundations Paper

Olive Garden, Red Lobster, and Longhorn Steakhouse are places many have had the pleasure of visiting. These restaurants focus on providing exceptional customer service and creating a positive work environment for their employees. Along with the focus on exceptional service, these restaurants share another commonality; they are all a part of the Darden Restaurant Group. In 1938, a 19 year old by the name of Bill Darden opened his first restaurant. Over the next 70 years, Bill Darden would add eight different restaurants brands to his portfolio of companies, each one dedicated to providing exceptional customer service. In 1995, the Darden Restaurants Group Inc. would develop the Darden Foundation. A foundation committed to giving millions of dollars to support non-profit organizations in the communities Darden restaurants serve.
Darden Foundation
The Darden Foundation was founded in 1995 and named for its founder Bill Darden. In partnership with more than 2,100 restaurants and 200,000 employees, the Darden Foundation works each day — through grant making and strong partnerships — to bring a tradition of service to life in every community Darden serves (http://www.dardenfoundation.com, 2014).
The Darden Foundation is focused and committed to making a meaningful impact on the communities they serve.
The Darden Foundation identifies and invests in national nonprofits across the U.S. and near its company headquarters in Central Florida. The Darden Foundation has three programs that offer different opportunities for success for nonprofits, these programs named; Recipe for Success, Preservation, and Good Neighbor all align with Darden’s “Passion for People” (http://www.dardenfoundation.com, 2014).
Recipe For Success
One of the Darden Foundations core values is "Always Learning, Always Teaching," (http://www.dardenfoundation.com, 2014). The Darden Foundation strongly believes that everyone deserves the opportunity to further his or her education. Through its program, Recipe for Success, the Darden Foundation, provides tools and training needed to succeed in today’s workplace. The Darden Foundation partners with organizations such as Boys and Girls Clubs of America, City Year, College Summit and Hispanic College Fund, NRAEF ProStart, and the United Negro College Fund to help address student gaps and provide access to the tools, hands-on learning and other services needed to make students’ dreams a reality.
Through grants, the Darden Foundation supports talented students in need of financial assistance. The grants provided through the Darden Foundation, help ensure that organizations such as Boys and Girls Clubs can have the finical assistance they need to continue to offer the programs they do. Organizations such as Boys and Girls Clubs focus on addressing academic crisis and gaps in educational resources, because of grants through the Recipe for Success program, offered through the Darden Foundation, proper resources would always be available.
Good Neighbor. The Darden Foundation strongly believes being a Good Neighbor the service outside the restaurant is as meaningful as the service inside (http://www.dardenfoundation.com, 2014). Through the Good Neighbor program, the Darden Foundation supports hunger relief and disaster relief. The Darden Foundation partners with Habitat for Humanity, Second Harvest Food Bank and Feeding America Food Banks to provide valuable assistance to help combat hunger in the United States.
Through the Good Neighbor program, the Darden Foundation supported the creation and opening a 100,000-sq.-ft. distribution center. The center houses the Darden Foundation Community Kitchen. The kitchen is a state-of-the-art facility that serves as a production area for meals for partner agencies and children’s summer programs (http://www.dardenfoundation.com, 2014). Along with a focus on hunger relief, the Darden Foundation is also focused on providing disaster relief assistance. Since 1997, the Darden Foundation has partnered with the American Red Cross to ensure there are trained workers; shelters and supplies are at the ready when disasters strikes. Every year, the Darden Foundation sends approximately $450 million preparing for and responding to disasters by providing basic needs such as feeding, sheltering, health services and distribution of recovery items (http://www.dardenfoundation.com, 2014).
Conclusion. So far in 2014, the Darden Foundation has awarded 1,135 grants to support opportunities through education and providing food to those in need. Since its inception in 1995 the Darden Foundation has awarded more than $71 million in grants (http://www.dardenfoundation.com, 2014). The Darden Foundation was founded to make a meaningful difference in the lives of those that so desperately need it. The Darden Foundation is focused on improving lives through educational assistance and hunger relief. 70 years ago the Darden Restaurant Group started out as a one-restaurant company focused on providing exceptional customer service. Today the Darden Restaurant Group has evolved into an eight brand multimillion dollar company. However, along with its restaurant success, the Darden Group has been able to establish a foundation that has proven to be an essential partner in helping communities through grants and support needed to improve quality of life.

Reference http://www.dardenfoundation.com. (2014). Darden Foundation. Retrieved from http://www.dardenfoundation.com

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