Responsible Stewardship

Culinary and hospitality students will benefit from a restaurant chain's fundraising campaign for the second year in a row.

The National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation and the California Restaurant Association Educational Foundation each will receive $20,000 grants from Yard House Restaurants. The funds, from the Irvine, Calif.-based company's Round It Up America campaign, will support NRAEF and CRAEF scholarships and ProStart programs.

Last year, NRAEF and CRAEF each received $15,000 grants from the campaign.

Restaurant operators can help alert employees to tax credits that might put extra money in their pockets.

Many workers don't realize they qualify for the Earned Income or Child Tax credits. Nor do they know how to claim the credits or where to find free filing assistance.

The National Restaurant Association encourages members to educate employees and guests about the credits by marking EITC Awareness Day (Friday, Jan. 27).

Congress should extend a tax deduction for smaller businesses that donate surplus food to charity, representatives of the food industry said today in a Capitol Hill briefing.

The briefing for the Senate Hunger Caucus examined the stress and strain on food banks and food donations. As economic woes continue, demand for nutritious food has skyrocketed at food banks, food pantries and other charitable organizations.

One way Congress can encourage more food donations is "changing tax policy to make sure the food goes to families, not the local dump," said Jane Avery, president, Community Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Indiana.

The latest episode of the National Restaurant Association's podcast series highlights cause marketing and community service just in time for the holiday season. While charitable giving is a year-round activity, the Association is also seeking applicants for its Restaurant Industry Awards this December.

Host Blair Chancey, editorial director of Food News Media, speaks with the National Restaurant Association’s Senior Director of Community Relations Alyssa Prince, about how cause marketing can help boost business and attract service-minded consumers. The discussion also centers around the Association's 2012 Restaurant Industry Awards program - the Restaurant Neighbor Award and Faces of Diversity awards.

Listen to and download the podcasts through iTunes.

The podcast is the fifth installment of the “Big Picture Management” series, presented by the National Restaurant Association and Food News Media – publisher of QSR and Restaurant Management magazines.

The first episode, tackled sustainability, the Association's Conserve: Solutions for Sustainability initiative, and how restaurant operators can boost their bottom lines by ramping up their environmental efforts.

The second episode highlights food and healthy living issues, including the Association's Kids LiveWell program.

The third installment focused on National Food Safety Education Month and how to work with health inspectors.

The fourth episode in the series was a discussion around restaurant industry employment and career opportunities, including the ProStart program.

Former First Lady Laura Bush is the spokesperson for Freedom Is Sweet, the restaurant industry fundraising campaign to benefit military veterans and their families. Watch what she has to say about Veterans Day and the importance of expressing our appreciation to those who have served.

This Veterans Day week (November 7-13) the restaurant industry in Texas is giving back to their military communities in the sweetest way possible. The National Restaurant Association, Texas Restaurant Association and Tee it up for the Troops have joined together to launch Freedom is Sweet in seven cities!

Russ Adams grew up raising turkeys, busing tables and washing dishes for his family's turkey farm and restaurant in Valparaiso, Ind.

His grandmother had opened the Strongbow Turkey Inn in 1940 to sell more turkey after the newly constructed U.S. Highway 30 cut through the farm. The inn had a restaurant, cabins and a gas station.

Today, Russ and his wife Nancy run what is now the Strongbow Inn, a destination restaurant with a banquet facility and on-site bakery and laundry. The business employs 138 people and seats 750 diners. They recently were named Indiana Restaurateurs of the Year by the Indiana Restaurant Association.

Two food courts operated by contract foodservice company HMSHost are serving as pilot sites for a new National Restaurant Association initiative that identifies and shares sustainability practices for multitenant feeding areas of airports, travel centers and shopping malls.

The Sustainable Food Court Initiative is a joint venture of the NRA and Zero Waste Zones, an Atlanta-based program that strives to eliminate foodservice facilities' landfill contributions. Other partners in the Initiative include Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group, one of the nation's largest shopping center operators, and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, where one of the HMS pilot facilities is located. The other is in the Concord Mills shopping mall in Concord, N.C.

The initiative addresses some of the sustainability challenges that are peculiar to food courts. For instance, according to Chris Moyer, project director of the NRA's Conserve program, the complexes typically have multiple food and beverage outlets that share a dining area serviced by a third party. Those operators may not be directly involved in such functions as putting out and emptying trash receptacles, he says.

ProStart, the national, two-year culinary training program for high-school students interested in pursuing restaurant industry careers, is celebrating the nearly 100,000 participants in the program with a new series of videos that showcase their talent and dedication to their craft.

Created and developed by the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation, ProStart teaches students food safety, sanitation and knife skills as well as culinary techniques and management skills. It provides real-world educational opportunities that will help the future leaders of the industry develop knowledge to advance their careers.

"ProStart is a very effective career-building program," said Carlton Curtis, vice president of Coca-Cola Foodservice and chairman of the NRAEF. "Supporters of the program are able to see the positive changes in the lives of these young people happen right before their eyes."

The National Restaurant Association is offering a new seminar on how to capitalize on social media strategies to gain guest support for your philanthropic causes.

The Aug. 10 webinar, offered with Share Our Strength, will feature, Amanda Hite, founder and CEO of Talent Revolution, and Robin Ahearn, senior vice president/chief marketing officer, Ignite Restaurant Group.

The seminar will offer tips to use social media to make the Dine Out for No Kid Hungry successfull.

The Kids LiveWell initiative is off to a great start in helping make the healthful choice the easy choice for parents across the nation.

Launched yesterday by the National Restaurant Association in collaboration with Healthy Dining, Kids LiveWell made headlines from coast to coast and has been hailed as a program that will have a positive impact on the health of future generations.

Ninteen restaurant companies representing more than 15,000 locations nationwide have signed on as "inaugural leaders" of the Kids LiveWell program. The Association expects the program to grow in the months head, as word spreads.