Boys & Girls Club of Cypress recently was selected to receive a $1,000 grant as part of the Restaurant Community Grants program from the Darden Restaurants Foundation, Inc., the charitable arm of Darden Restaurants.
Boys & Girls Club of Cypress recently was selected to receive a $1,000 grant as part of the Restaurant Community Grants program from the Darden Restaurants Foundation, Inc., the charitable arm of Darden Restaurants.
Now in its third year, the grant program empowers each restaurant in the Darden family of brands to help award a $1,000 grant to support local community programs.
The donation will help the Boys & Girls Club of Cypress to provide after-school homework help, mentoring and enrichment opportunities for club members.
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 that includes education, preservation of natural resources and hunger relief.
Brands participating in the program were Darden’s Red Lobster, Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, Bahama Breeze, Seasons 52, The Capital Grille, Eddie V’s and Yard House.
“In addition to this generous $1,000 program grant from the Darden Restaurant Foundation, the Cypress Olive Garden restaurant Manager Tanya Bullard annually provides a holiday meal for a club family. “We greatly appreciate their support,” said Anne Hertz, Executive Director of Boys & Girls Club of Cypress.
“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.”
The financial support of the community helps the Boys & Girls Club to serve families in the community, regardless of their ability to pay. Every day the after school program picks up children from school, provides them with a snack, helps them with homework and offers a wide range of special interest science, arts, sports and leadership activities.
The mission of the Boys & Girls Club of Cypress is to inspire and empower all young people, especially those who need us most, to realize their full potential as productive, responsible and caring citizens.
For more than 35 years the Boys & Girls Club of Cypress has partnered with the City of Cypress to provide free and low-cost after school and summer program activities for school-age children of local residents and local business employees. The building was remodeled in 2008. It contains a teen room, technology lab, art room, kitchen, games room and is in the middle of a beautiful park. They opened a second location in 2007 in partnership with the Cypress School District and today serve more than 1,100 children a year at both sites after school and all day throughout the summer. Our programs are research-based and intentionally designed to maximize their impact on improving academic success, healthy lifestyles, and character development. Their organization offers free program services for children of military families. The club’s board of directors is committed to the success of the program and each member contributes substantially to its success.
Club attendance has grown by 400 percent in the past six years. Their program is in demand because their professional youth development staff leaders implement free and low-cost, high-quality, research-based programs that guide and encourage club members to achieve academic success, lead healthy lifestyles, and demonstrate good character and citizenship.
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. Their restaurant brands are Red Lobster, Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, Bahama Breeze, Seasons 52, The Capital Grille, Eddie V's and Yard House. Each reflects the rich diversity of those who dine with them. Their brands are built on deep insights into what our guests want.
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.
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 which includes 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 about the Darden Foundation, please visit www.dardenfoundation.com. For additional information on the Boys & Girls Club of Cypress, please visit www.boysandgirlsclubofcypress.com.