CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY (continued)

Perry Institute Baghdad "Care Package"

By experimenting with different methods, like aquaculture and stock and habitat enhancement, Perry's scientists are not only collecting promising data and learning valuable information about the spiny lobster's habitat, but they're also providing information that could ultimately increase all lobster populations throughout the world.

BUILDING STRONG COMMUNITIES

Volunteer Spotlight
At Darden, volunteerism "runs in the family." Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Bahama Breeze, and Smokey Bones and their employees are all involved in a variety of regional and national community events and programs. Through the Cops & Lobsters program, for example, Red Lobster restaurants invite law enforcement officers to work as celebrity servers and collect donations, raising millions of dollars for Special Olympics. And Olive Garden restaurants raise millions for the national Leukemia and Lymphoma Society through its annual Pasta for Pennies program, which raised $3.2 million in fiscal 2004.

When Darden employees see a problem or need in the community, they jump in and go to work. On almost any day of the year, you'll find Darden volunteers throughout North America working to better their communities by serving on boards of charitable organizations, working in local schools, raising funds to fight disease, collecting toys for underprivileged children, mentoring students ... or any of thousands of other acts of community service. Here are a few other examples:

  • What started with several Ohio-area Olive Garden and Red Lobster restaurant teams shipping much-requested coffee to the 1485th Army National Guard unit in Dover, OH, became a whole lot more on New Year's Day, 2004. The soldiers, who had been deployed to Iraq the previous May, were planning to have a New Year's Day cookout, and were unaware that a group of Darden employees were planning to make it a feast for them.

    On January 1, 2004, a "care package" arrived in Iraq, courtesy of Red Lobster and Olive Garden, loaded with strip steaks, Maine lobster tails, and enough baked potatoes, breadsticks, salad, desserts, and more to feed the 225 servicemen and women of the 1485th stationed north of Baghdad!

  • On a visit to a shelter for battered women and their children in South Central Los Angeles, Linda Landman-Gonzalez, Darden's Director of Diversity and Community Affairs, noticed the home had no window coverings other than sheets strung over a rod.

    So Linda talked to Senior Vice President of Operations for Olive Garden's Los Angeles Division, Rob Viveros, about donating blinds, and Rob made it happen. "The people there were so excited," Rob says. "One lady broke down and cried because the blinds made her feel so much more safe and secure."

  • Brad Richmond, SVP Finance & Strategic Planning for Red Lobster, volunteers on the board and executive committee of Florida's Blood Centers (FBC), formerly the Central Florida Blood Bank. FBC is the largest blood bank in Florida, and the fourth largest in the nation. "I volunteer for the pure satisfaction it gives me to be able to use my talents and skills to help this organization," he says. "I think it's a world-class organization and vital to maintaining strong health care in Central Florida."

  • When Cynthia Meca, General Manager of an Olive Garden in Tampa, Florida, heard that one of her line cooks was competing in an industry competition and Darden was a sponsor, she knew she wanted to help. "I got so excited about the competition, I said, ‘I tell you what, I'll get you chef coats'," Cynthia says. The competition was part of Pro Start, a school-to-career program in which students learn every aspect of food preparation and participate in student competitions.

    "I put a lot of passion into my volunteer service," says Cynthia, who tries to get involved in a community project every month. "It comes from my heart and is a real source of joy and meaning in my life."