Building on the restaurant industry's continuing efforts to help victims of the earthquake in Haiti, the National Restaurant Association and and the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation (NRAEF) have announced that they have joined with Share Our Strength to organize Restaurants for Relief-Haiti. The 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.
"Restaurants are always among the first to respond to emergency situations, and we have seen how incredibly generous the restaurant industry is in times of crisis," said Dawn Sweeney, president and CEO of the NRA and NRAEF. "Share Our Strength is one of our industry's most effective charitable organizations, and we are pleased to join their efforts. We encourage all the nation's nearly 1 million restaurants to join this effort."
Share Our Strength will grant 100 percent 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.
- Collect donations from patrons, or direct them to make online donations at www.strength.org/haiti.
- Encourage employees to make individual donations and match them.
- Visit the Restaurants for Relief-Haiti Web site for more ideas.
"We are deeply concerned about the families and children displaced by this unimaginable disaster," said Bill Shore, founder and executive director of Share Our Strength. "Hunger has always been a huge issue in Haiti and will be even more so going forward. Funds raised through Restaurants for Relief will help us provide both short- and long-term assistance as Haiti recovers and rebuilds." 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.
