Pizza Hut & Taco Bell Philippines fight hunger with the United Nations-World Food Programme (UN-WFP)

(L-R) Martin Bettelley, WFP Philippines Deputy Country Director, and Teck Huack “TH” Lim, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell Chief Operating Officer, give out food as part of their joint ongoing commitment to fight hunger among Filipino children. Photo: WFP/Faizza Tanggol

As part of its continued commitment to help fight hunger among Filipino children, Yum! Brands’ Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, together with the United Nations-World Food Programme (UN-WFP), recently visited conflict-affected communities in Lanao to observe the WFP’s ongoing feeding programme for schoolchildren.

(L-R) Frank Gonzalez, Pizza Hut District Manager-North and VisMin; Lorent Adrias, Taco Bell Senior Marketing Manage; Martin Bettelley, WFP Philippines Deputy Country Director; Teck Huack “TH” Lim, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell Chief Operating Officer; Erryl Ramos, Taco Bell Vice-President for Operations; and Jeanette Uy, Pizza Hut District Manager-South. Photo: WFP/Faizza Tanggol

The school-based feeding programme, which benefits thousands of children in conflict-affected Central Mindanao, is part of the annual World Hunger Relief Programme (WHRP), a campaign touted as the world’s largest private sector hunger relief effort to raise awareness, volunteerism and funds to benefit WFP. Established in 2007, the WHR is primarily focused on engaging Yum! Brands’ associates, franchisees and consumers in over 41,000 restaurants around the globe to end world hunger by contributing money to help feed beneficiaries of the WFP. 

“We’ve been a supporter of the World Food Programme since 2008, and we continue to support it by raising awareness about food and nutrition security among our customers and employees,” shared Teck Huack “TH” Lim, Chief Operating Officer of Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. “In the Philippines, we have over 5,000 employees and by engaging them to be part of WHRP, we can make a huge contribution in alleviating hunger especially among children, while encouraging our employees to grow into socially responsible members of their community,” he added.

(L-R) Martin Bettelley, WFP Philippines Deputy Country Director; Teck Huack “TH” Lim, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell Chief Operating Officer; Erryl Ramos, Taco Bell Vice-President for Operations; and Mayor Farhana Palawan of Poona Piagapo distribute loot bags filled with school supplies. Photo: WFP/Mei Nebreja-Santos

“We would like to thank Yum! Brands Pizza Hut and Taco Bell Philippines for their unrelenting support throughout the years,” said Martin Bettelley, Deputy Country Director of WFP Philippines. “Through their initiative, we get to provide nutritious meals to schoolchildren in Central Mindanao who need them the most. In time, we can all achieve our goal to end world hunger.”

TH Lim and Martin Bettelley led in the recent distribution of nutritious meals and loot bags were recently distributed to 900 children from Denaig Elementary School in Poona Piagao, Lanao Del Norte, and Pindulonan Elementary School in Piagapo, Lanao del Sur. Joining them were representatives from the Department of Education and local government units. 

The World Hunger Relief 2015 campaign to raise funds for school meals in conflict-affected Lanao del Norte, Lanao del Sur, and Maguindanao will start in November across all Pizza Hut and Taco Bell outlets in the Philippines. This year, Philippine Pizza Inc aims to sell tokens in exchange for donations, which cover coin banks and loose change. 

Yum! Brands’ Pizza Hut and Taco Bell Philippines began their World Hunger Relief campaign in 2008, and have since raised over PhP25 million to help feed Filipino schoolchildren through WFP. This campaign is one of the largest private sector hunger relief initiatives spanning more than 125 countries and territories.

WFP is the world’s largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide, delivering food assistance in emergencies and working with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience. Each year, it assists more than 80 million people in around 80 countries.

For more information about World Hunger Relief 2015, visit the official Philippine websites of Pizza Hut and Taco Bell at www.pizzahut.com.ph and www.tacobell.com.ph respectively.