WFP Focuses on Nutrition at World Economic Forum and Names Yum! Brands Partner of the Year

WFP Focuses on Nutrition at World Economic Forum and Names Yum! Brands Partner of the Year

WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran presents Partner of the Year award to Graham Allan, President of Yum! Brands International.
Influential decision makers from around the globe recently gathered in Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2010. Representatives from the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) participated in the conference to ensure that global hunger and nutrition were high on the agenda.

WFP had two key themes this year: nutrition and the need for private sector innovation to help fight malnutrition. In a nearby food assistance storage tent, WFP hosted presidents, prime ministers, CEOs and international agency leaders in a series of meetings and discussions centered on finding lasting solutions to global hunger.

Focusing on the importance of partnerships with the private sector, WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran announced Yum! Brands as WFP’s Partner of the Year at an annual dinner-discussion forum on world hunger. Yum! Brands – the parent company of KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Long John Silver’s and A&W Restaurants – has raised about $30 million for WFP over the past three years through its World Hunger Relief campaign.

“This partnership has galvanized everyone throughout our company,” said Graham Allan, President of Yum! Brands International. “I have gone to El Salvador and Guatemala to visit WFP’s programs and I’ve seen the statistics brought to life on the people’s faces…We’ve made a long-term commitment to ourselves and to WFP. With WFP, people have a chance for a better life.”

Yum! Brands’ generosity also extends to WFP’s emergency relief operations in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake. The company directed $500,000 from its charitable foundation and $500,000 from the World Hunger Relief campaign to WFP’s emergency relief operations in Haiti. Yum! Brands also produced a public service announcement with its global spokesperson Christina Aguilera and boxing legend Muhammad Ali.