Comments on the Positive Impact of Harvest Programs

Donor Partners

Yum! Brands (Pizza Hut, KFC, Taco Bell, Long John Silver’s, A&W) has donated surplus food through the YUMeals Harvest Program since 1992.  Read more about their commitment to working to alleviate hunger. Yum! Brands has also launched World Hunger Relief Week to make a difference in the effort to stop world hunger.

Darden Restaurants (Red Lobster, Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, The Capital Grille) donate their surplus food in the United States and in their Canadian Red Lobster restaurants. Darden includes their Harvest Food Donation Program as part of ‘Being of Service’ to the local community. Darden also embraces the goal of Waste Not, Want Not in their contribution to reducing hunger.

Rock Bottom Restaurants (Old Chicago Pizza, Rock Bottom Breweries, Chop House) is dedicated to combating hunger in the communities in which they live and operate restaurants.

Agency Partners

Island Harvest  Our Mission: To end hunger and reduce food waste on Long Island, NY

“Island Harvest has been a part of the Harvest Program, for many years.  The food procured from this program has provided over 600,000 meals...  Many don’t realize that on Long Island we have approx 259,000 Nassau/Suffolk County residents or nearly 10% of the population who seek emergency food assistance every year.  This includes 93,000 children and 39,000 seniors.  We have 450+ soup kitchens, food pantries, shelters, residences, Head Start Programs, senior centers and other programs that we service.   The food provided each week allows us to service many members especially those  don’t have a cooking facility readily accessible.  The prepared foods allows them to have a good and healthy meal – all they need to do is pop it in the Microwave.  We have an after school program in Brentwood that has about 65 children who participate in the program  who anxiously  wait for the Chicken or Pizza we provide them to be given out because it’s the only meal they will get as “Dinner”.  The Harvest program is an integral part of our organization and we could not provide the service we do without caring, informed programs such as yours.    On behalf of all of us at Island Harvest,  thank you for your concern, commitment and willingness to help your neighbors in need.“
    --Migdalia Otero, Director of Operations Island Harvest – New York

San Diego Rescue Mission – Serving San Diego, California

We began our prepared food donation recovery program called, “Partners for Hunger Relief” in 1997 and Pizza Hut was the first restaurant to donate to our organization. Prior to that, we only picked up bread and pastries from a few grocery stores. Since we had so many people to feed at the San Diego Rescue Mission, we began to seek more restaurants and caterers to donate their excess food because the prepared foods were of greater value and much more nutritious than the bread and pastries. In 1999, we began picking up food from most of the Kentucky Fried Chicken Restaurants in San Diego. The donations of pizza from Pizza Hut and chicken wings, rice, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob and macaroni &cheese from KFC have increased the nutritional value of the food we had available and the men, women and children that receive these meals have been so grateful to have more variety in the weekly menus. We collect enough of the Pizza Hut and KFC items to serve three meals a week! And we serve 500 people at each meal. That is 1500 free meals that would otherwise be thrown away if these restaurants didn’t donate to our organization. We are able to help other agencies with feeding programs when we collect over the amount we need to serve three meals a week. For variations, we make sweet & sour chicken by pouring canned fruit cocktail, garlic, onions and bell pepper chunks, brown sugar and soy sauce over the KFC chicken wings, bake and serve over rice. If we have a lot of mashed potatoes we make shepherds pie, or doctor the potatoes up with sour cream, green onions and almost any kind of cheese for a potato casserole. Our clients love the food because they feel they are getting to eat at a restaurant, and who doesn’t love Pizza Hut and KFC? The savings on provisions has been tremendous and allowed us to grow and help more people over the years. This has been a wonderful partnership and we are truly grateful.
    -- Stephanie Paine, Director of Food Service, San Diego Rescue Mission

City Harvest – Serving New York City for 25 Years

Yum Brands helps City Harvest feed some of the more than one million New Yorkers who turn to emergency food programs each year.  City Harvest has ensured that the nearly 200,000 pounds of food and counting donated by KFC and Pizza Hut since the beginning of our partnership has reached the people who need it most.
    --Jennifer McLean, Vice President of Operations, City Harvest

In the News

Red Lobster announces National Launch of Harvest Program June 2, 2005:

New York Times article on Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Act  December 11, 1996.

Hunger Links

America’s Second Harvest–The Nation’s Food Bank Network feeds America's hungry through a nationwide network of member food banks and engages our country in the fight to end hunger.

Society of St, Andrew - A Christian ministry dedicated to gleaning America’s fields and feeding America’s hungry, we provide healthy, nutritious produce to society’s most vulnerable through innovative, cost effective programs

Wasted Food provides a look at how America squanders nearly half of its food.