Pocket change from Yard House patrons is funding National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation and California Restaurant Association Educational Foundation scholarship programs and ProStart.
The NRAEF and CRAEF are among the beneficiaries of Yard House's Round It Up America. Guests at the company's 28 locations contribute to the program by rounding their check totals to the nearest dollar.
The Irvine, Calif.-based restaurant chain launched the fundraising initiative in July 2004. Since then, it has raised about $265,000. NRAEF and CRAEF each received $15,000 at an October ceremony.
Operation Homefront, which provides emergency and morale assistance to soldiers, wounded warriors and families of deployed soldiers, received $50,000. Twenty other organizations from Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Nevada, and Texas received donations ranging from $5,000 to $15,000.
Yard House raises about $40 a day from each location, with an average donation of 80 cents, says Jennifer Weerheim, vice president of marketing. "It's fully active 24/7, 365 days a year."
Weerheim and Yard House President and CEO Harald Herrmann created the fundraising campaign last year after reading news stories about dwindling donations and supplies at food banks and homeless shelters. They wanted to make it easy for anyone to contribute, even as little as a few cents on their bills.
"It becomes a huge amount when you gather all of our guests together," Weerheim says.
Herrmann, a long-time philanthropist, was a finalist this year for the National Restaurant Association's Cornerstone Humanitarian, one of the Association's Restaurant Neighbor Awards.
"Harald has a huge heart, and we do, too," Weerheim says.
The NRA's Restaurant Neighbor Awards recognize outstanding community service. Winning restaurants receive $5,000 to continue their philanthropic work. Find out more, or apply or nominate a deserving restaurateur.
In the picture above, Jennifer Kovacs, director, special events and fundraising, National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation, accepts a check from Yard House. Also pictured (left to right): Lauren Noel, server/trainer, Yard House, Irving, Calif.; Steele Platt, Yard House founder; Parker Morrison, server, Yard House, Irvine, Calif. Photo by Larry Cohn.
