By Devon Dyment, REX Analyst at Pizza Hut Canada
On a gorgeous Friday in mid-September an amazing cross branded team of 11 volunteers from the Canadian Yum RSC woke up before the sun and ran our annual golf tournament in support of World Hunger and the World Food Programme.
Suppliers for all brands came together in support for the cause and donated their time, their products, and opened their wallets to help us raise $140,000 – beating our previous year’s donations! 91 golfers made up of suppliers, members of the RSC, and our leadership team participated in the tournament and even more suppliers and leadership team members joined us in the afternoon for lunch, the culinary event, a silent auction, and a raffle draw.
The culinary event was something new we wanted to add for this year. We partnered with the Ontario Culinary Chefs — winners of the 2014 Culinary Olympics in Gaspe — an organization that helps underprivileged youth get into and succeed in the culinary world. Some of Canada’s best chefs were given the challenge of featuring a product from our suppliers in an appetizer dish. Dishes ranged from zesty soup to pork tacos! One chef was even able to make a beautiful dish with cucumber and salmon – his ingredient? Mountain Dew! Our guests were then able to vote on their favorite: Agropur, our cheese supplier, went home with the first-place prize!
This was the 5th annual tournament Canada has hosted to support world hunger and is only a portion of the projects the World Hunger Committee managed this year in our journey to reach our bold goal of 1 million dollars!
On a personal note, I have been a part of this tournament planning 2 years in a row now and it is amazing to see people from all brands and departments work together for a single cause. It takes a lot of work, organization, and creativity to bring this tournament to life! Being able to be there on the day of and see everything come together and see the generosity in people is worth all of the time, sweat, and chaos of planning! Towards the end of the event Nicolas Burquier shared in his closing comments that we have been able to raise nearly $800,000 in recent years through our efforts and the applause and smiles lit up the entire room.
Check out some other feedback from participants of the event below!
A couple things I really wanted to call out. One, the culinary event was amazing. What a unique way to keep people not hungry before lunch and such and great way to get conversations flowing! Hopefully you guys continue this part of the day next year. Second, I love the early start and the early finish. Normally golf tournaments you can pretty much budget to be there into the evening after a dinner…. It was so nice to get out, have a great day on the course and finish with a late lunch so we could get home and still enjoy our evening. Overall such a great job! You guys must have put in a ton of time planning! Looking forward to next year!– Megan M. Pepsico Rep
I have had the privilege of being part of the WH Golf for the last four years. The Golf tournament this year was a memorable one … not just for me but everyone who participated… not only did the teams enjoy the golfing and prizing but the Culinary event took the event to another level! The products that the suppliers provided were showcased so elegantly and with extraordinary results! It was amazing! And the weather held out for us! – Jessie M, Executive Assistant to KFC GM
What an outstanding event! The Yum! World Hunger golf tournament continues to impress and gather people from all over and the result is a repeated success overflowing with enthusiasm and warm hearts. It continues to amaze all, the amount of generosity that comes from each and every individual that was a part of the day. The entire event ran so seamlessly and had such an incredible vibe which exuded through each participant and noticeably encouraged their amplified donations that were collected that day! A great event for all that ran it, attended it… and most importantly… those that will benefit from the world hunger donations! Fantastic job! J – Cristina DePellegrin, Senior Exec. Assist GM PH Canada
We are always continuing to think ahead and want to make next year’s event bigger, bolder, and better! We have learned that golf, although a fun day out of the office, is not for everyone. We are looking to spice things up in 2016 and are looking to plan an event that can bring out even more people to build support and awareness for World Hunger! We’re thinking a great night out – who can say not to that?