Lane Cardwell

No Kid Should Go Hungry Here

Most people have a favorite charity. Most companies have a charity, or charities, that they favor more than others. It usually is a reflection of the interests and passions of the CEO or founder. The individuality of these charities is what gives a company its philanthropic image. In addition to these charities, I also believe that as part of the restaurant industry, it is only natural that some of our charitable giving be directed back to those who are not able to even afford groceries for their home. In essence, we would be helping those who are least likely to be our current customers.

I have been on the board of the Dallas food bank for 13 years.  A lot has changed in hunger relief during that time period.  There is a belief that the majority of the food that food banks, and shelters providing hunger relief, distribute comes from canned food drives. It is actually much less than 10%. The bulk of the non-governmental sources for food come from food manufacturers and grocery stores. They have access to the large volume of shelf stable products that are the staple of hunger relief. Most of the impact from the restaurant industry has come from donations of money, and their influence with key suppliers to help as they can. There is a growing awareness of the tax savings associated with donating edible products to hunger relief organizations.

In recent years there has been a big push from food manufacturers and grocery stores to reduce their inventory waste. The rise of dollar stores and inventory resellers has greatly reduced the amount of food that has traditionally gone to food banks. You may have noticed in the papers, or seen on the news, that times are tough for most people. Times are especially tough for those with kids who have barely been getting by. The demand for food from hunger relief agencies greatly outweighs the supply of food from all sources to combat hunger. This happens whenever times are hard.

Share Our Strength, one of the country's leading hunger relief organizations, has launched the Great American Dine Out. Its purpose is to raise the funds needed to help end childhood hunger in America. If you have influence over charitable giving for your restaurants, your company should be part of this.

You pledge a percentage (1%-5%) of your sales for the eight day period of September 21-28. Share Our Strength and its program sponsors (NRA, NRN, Food Network, Fishbowl, Open Table, Elliot, and others) will promote this event to the general public, and ask them to patronize participating restaurants during the program period. Even if you are light on the charitable gene, you should still be interested in this from a sales building opportunity. It will be heavily promoted, and many customers will be choosing from those restaurants that are part of the event.

Let me save you a call to your CFO. If your company does $100 million in annual sales, 1% of eight days sales would be about $22,000. You can use that as a baseline for figuring out what your donation would be at various sales and percentage pledge levels. You can even pledge a fixed dollar amount. The key to success is widespread participation among restaurant companies so that the impact on customers is maximized.

In summary, we have tough times, a rise in hungry kids, a falloff in donations of food and money, and Share Our Strength offering a program that benefits both the kids, and the restaurants that help raise money for their food. The Great American Dine Out from September 21-28. If you make your living selling food to those who can afford it, give just a little help to those with kids who cannot. Hunger relief should be part of any restaurant organization's DNA.
 

Posted by Lane Cardwell on May 16, 2008 | Comments (6)