Boys & Girls Clubs of Southern Nevada and Darden Restaurants Partner to Advance Project Learn
Boys & Girls Clubs of Southern Nevada, a non-profit organization that strives enable all youth, especially the ones that need it the most, to become productive, caring, responsible citizens, today announced it has been selected to receive a $7,000 grant as part of the Restaurant Community Grants program from the Darden Restaurants Foundation, Inc., the charitable arm of Darden Restaurants. The grants program, now in its third year, empowers each restaurant in the Darden family of brands to help award a $1,000 grant to support local community programs. The donation will enable Boys & Girls Club of Southern Nevada’s to run Project Learn in the Clubhouses. Project Learn reinforces and enhances the skills and knowledge young people learn at school during the hours they spend at the Club through high-yield learning activities, such as leisure reading and writing activities..
Darden’s Red Lobster, Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, Bahama Breeze, Seasons 52, The Capital Grille, Eddie V’s and Yard House brands participated in the program. Many restaurants and brands worked together to award one nonprofit organization with a larger grant and make a greater impact in their community. Nonprofits receiving grants support one of Darden’s three key focus areas: education, preservation of natural resources and hunger relief.
“The generous support from Darden Restaurants shows their dedication to supporting academic success for youth in our community and communities nationwide,” said Boys & Girls Clubs of Southern Nevada President/CEO Ken Rubeli. “We know that regular participation in out-of-school-time educational programs, like Project Learn, can help in addressing the high school dropout crisis and bridge the achievement gap for our youth.”
“We strive to make a positive impact in all the communities our restaurants serve,” said Gene Lee, Darden’s president and chief operating officer. “Our employees are incredibly passionate about getting directly involved in their local communities, and our Restaurant Community Grants program enables each of our restaurant teams to make a difference right in their own backyard.”
For more information about the Darden Foundation, please visit www.dardenfoundation.com. For additional information on Boys & Girls Clubs of Southern Nevada please visit www.bgclv.org.
About Boys & Girls Clubs of Southern Nevada:
The new Boys & Girls Clubs of Southern Nevada is a merger of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Henderson and Boys & Girls Clubs of Las Vegas. The new nonprofit organization operates 14 facilities and three summer outreach programs in Southern Nevada, and serves more than 30,000 youth in Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Henderson, Southern Highlands and Summerlin. Boys & Girls Clubs of Southern Nevada provides every child with the essential tools needed for a successful and bright future through a variety of daily creative, fun, and educational programs. For information, visit www.bgchenderson.org, www.bgclv.org, and coming soon www.bgcsnv.org, or call (702) 367-2582.
About Darden Restaurants
Darden Restaurants, Inc., (NYSE: DRI), owns and operates more than 2,100 restaurants that generate over $8.5 billion in annual sales. Headquartered in Orlando, Fla., and employing more than 200,000 people, Darden is recognized for a culture that rewards caring for and responding to people. In 2014, Darden was named to the FORTUNE “100 Best Companies to Work For” list for the fourth year in a row. Our restaurant brands – Red Lobster, Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, Bahama Breeze, Seasons 52, The Capital Grille, Eddie V’s and Yard House – reflect the rich diversity of those who dine with us. Our brands are built on deep insights into what our guests want. For more information, please visit www.darden.com.
The Darden Foundation
The Darden Restaurants, Inc. Foundation is the charitable arm of Darden Restaurants, Inc. The Darden Foundation’s mission is to maintain a spirit of service and community engagement as defining characteristics of Darden’s family of restaurants – Red Lobster, Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, Bahama Breeze, Seasons 52, The Capital Grille, Eddie V’s and Yard House. Since 1995, the Darden Foundation has awarded more than $71 million in grants to leading nonprofit organizations that align with its mission and community priorities: Recipe for Success®, Preservation of Natural Resources and Good Neighbor grants. Through the Darden Harvest program, Darden Restaurants has also donated more than 66 million pounds of food to hunger relief agencies across the U.S. and Canada. In 2011, the Darden Foundation introduced the Restaurant Community Grants program that is dedicated to supporting local nonprofit organizations in the hundreds of communities where we live and serve. For more information, please visit www.dardenfoundation.com.