More Restaurants Are Helping Haitians

  • January 29, 2010
Starbucks and Panda Express are the latest restaurant chains to announce programs to aid Haitian earthquake victims. In addition, the National Restaurant Association and its Educational Foundation (NRAEF) have joined with Share Our Strength to organize a Restaurants for Relief-Haiti program.

Starting today, participating Starbucks restaurants in the U.S. and Canada will enable customers to make monetary donations at store registers, with no purchase necessary, to benefit the American and Canadian Red Cross organizations for a limited time. The Starbucks Foundation will also donate $1 million (U.S.) to the American Red Cross efforts to help Haiti.

Panda Restaurant Group Inc., parent of Panda Express, has committed to a goal of raising $300,000 through in-store and corporate donations. Through Feb. 5, participating Panda Express locations across the country will facilitate donations through in-store drop-boxes, allowing guests to make contributions of any amount.

All guest-donated proceeds, targeted at $100,000, will benefit humanitarian charity organization World Vision. In addition, the company's nearly 18,000 associates nationwide will donate from their personal incomes, including a $100,000 matching fund facilitated by the company's founders, Andrew and Peggy Cherng. The corporate-generated proceeds, targeted at $200,000, will be donated to the compassion relief organization Tzu Chi Foundation.

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The National Restaurant Association/NRAEF/Share Our Strength program is an extension of the original Restaurants for Relief in 2005 that raised nearly $1 million from the nation's restaurants to aid recovery efforts in the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina.

Share Our Strength will grant 100% of funds raised through Restaurants for Relief-Haiti to organizations with proven capacity and expertise to respond to such a crisis. Restaurants can participate by:

• Donating a portion of sales from a week, a day or a specific menu item.

• Collecting donations from patrons, or directing them to make online donations at www.strength.org/haiti.

• Encouraging employees to make individual donations and match them.

• Visiting the Restaurants for Relief-Haiti Web site (www.strength.org/get_involved/restaurants_for_relief) for more ideas.

Restaurants that wish to help should send the restaurant name, city and state to RFR@strength.org to be added to the list of participants. Program donations can be made online through Share Our Strength at any time before Feb. 12.

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