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Darden Grant Lends Support to Adopt-A-Senior Program

Monday March 17, 2014

The Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank has been selected to receive a $3,000 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 the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank to provide additional support for the Adopt-a-Senior program.

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 Adopt-A-Senior program is very important to the seniors that we serve. The grant from Darden allows us to provide increased support to the seniors included in the program that may otherwise be faced with making the choice between food or prescription medications. This type of support for our community from partners like Darden is invaluable and vital to our ability to provide food to those in need,” said Mike Manning, President and CEO of the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank.

“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 Adopt-A-Senior program’s purpose is to improve the quality of life of seniors with limited incomes by allowing them to stretch their budgets so that they do not have to choose between paying for medications, paying utility bills, paying for transportation or buying food. The Adopt-A-Senior program provides basic, shelf-stable food once a month for the period of a year to qualified at-risk seniors.

For more information about the Darden Foundation, please visit www.dardenfoundation.com. For additional information on the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank please visit www.brfoodbank.org.

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.  Darden’s 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 Darden.  Darden 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.

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