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Press
Release
MOE’S SOUTHWEST GRILL CREATES $2 MILLION PARTNERSHIP WITH
THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISSING & EXPLOITED CHILDREN TO INCREASE CHILD
SAFETY
Company Is Committed to Raising Awareness of This Important
Issue and Ensure Safer Restaurants and Communities
ATLANTA (May 4, 2006) – Raving Brands, parent
company of Moe’s Southwest Grill and one of America’s largest
and fastest-growing restaurant companies, announces its $2 million, two-year
commitment to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children®
(NCMEC) as its charitable and fundraising partner through 2008. This partnership
is part of a larger initiative to ensure safer operations throughout its
restaurants and as a call-to-action for the entire restaurant industry
to adopt simple, effective measures to address key child-safety issues.
Along with becoming NCMEC’s largest annual financial corporate donor,
Raving Brands is also leveraging its extensive network of restaurants
to help increase safety and awareness throughout all the communities they
serve coast-to-coast.
With more families using Moe’s Southwest Grill as their family’s
dining room, Raving Brands saw this is an important opportunity to reach
families with simple tips and often overlooked safety measures to help
ensure increased safety for our children. The U.S. Department of Justice
reports an average 2,000 children are reported missing each day to law
enforcement in the United States; thankfully the vast majority of these
children are recovered quickly. Through NCMEC’s positive and empowering
safety messages and enhanced safety protocols and employee training, Raving
Brands and Moe’s Southwest Grill are committed to increasing safety
within their locations and the communities they serve.
“The collaboration is really historic because it marks the first
time that a national restaurant group has teamed up financially and programmatically
to help NCMEC,” said Ernie Allen, president and CEO of NCMEC. “Raving
Brands should be applauded for mobilizing their management, employees,
and customers to fully extend their network of resources to aid in our
country’s ongoing efforts to successfully bring more missing children
home safely.”
Taking on the issue of missing and exploited children may seem a bit
out of character for a restaurant group known almost as much for their
irreverent sense of humor and laidback atmosphere as they are for their
take on fresh, fast-casual cuisine. But for a company who believes children
are worth Raving about, the partnership with NCMEC made perfect sense.
“The idea of one of us having to look a parent or guardian in the
eye and tell them we did not take every measure to ensure their child’s
safety while in our restaurants is unthinkable to us,” said Brian
Curin, vice president of marketing for Raving Brands and official NCMEC
Ambassador. “This as a tremendous opportunity to communicate the
value of child safety to the millions of people who come through our doors
and to the families and communities we serve every day.”
With the start of Cinco de Moe’s, Moe’s Southwest Grill’s
month-long promotion starting May 1, they will be the only restaurant
group in the nation to incorporate some of the most effective child safety
programs. The company is already the first restaurant group to become
a secondary AMBER
Alert distributor, allowing all of their locations and employees to
become an extra set of eyes helping extend the reach of law enforcement
searching for the most endangered child abductions.
Additionally, all Raving Brands, which include Moe’s Southwest
Grill, Mama Fu’s Asian House, Doc Green’s Gourmet Salads,
Shane’s Rib Shack, Boneheads Grilled Fish and Piri Piri Chicken,
Planet Smoothie Cafe, PJ’s Coffee, and Monkey Joe’s are creating
another first for the restaurant industry with the integration of the
Code
Adam program. Code Adam is a 6-point procedure for employees to quickly
and effectively respond to a missing or lost child on-premise. This simple,
turn-key program is free and available to all restaurants through NCMEC
and has been proven successful throughout 55,000 retail environments yet
Raving Brands is the first in the restaurant industry to adopt it nationwide.
Leveraging every one of their coast-to-coast locations, Raving Brands
and Moe’s Southwest Grill is looking to increase awareness of missing
and abducted children through their participation in NCMEC’s Photo
Partner program. Posters with photos of children either missing from
or believed to be in their area will be sent monthly to each restaurant
for display. Astonishingly, one-in-six children featured in this program
is recovered as a direct result of someone taking the time to look and
call. Adding an additional 600 locations will substantially add to the
number of people who have the opportunity to help.
After taking great lengths to ensure a safer environment within their
restaurants, Raving Brands is directly reaching out to families and communities
across the country via free child identification days. As part of every
grand opening celebration, Moe’s Southwest Grills and the rest of
Raving Brands’ portfolio have developed an event where parents and
guardians receive a free, completed kit that includes a photo of their
child taken that day, along with valuable emergency information and NCMEC
safety tips addressing key safety issues for parents, guardians, children,
and the community.
With May 25 proclaimed as National
Missing Children’s Day, all eight of Raving Brands’ concepts
will be starting their commitment to NCMEC with a month-long fundraiser.
A portion of sales from popular menu items will be donated to NCMEC to
further their efforts to bring missing children home.
About Raving Brands
Founded in 2000, Atlanta-based Raving Brands, ranked #1 in Fast Casual
magazine’s “2005 Top 100 Movers and Shakers” currently
consists of eight concepts: five fast-casual, two beverage-focused dining
establishments and one family entertainment facility. The company’s
fast-casual concepts include Moe's Southwest Grill, a 2005 Inc. magazine
Top 25 Company, rated 6th in Fast Casual magazine’s “2005
Top 100 Movers and Shakers” and Nation’s Restaurant News’
2004 Hot Concepts! award winner and Mama Fu's Asian House, a 2005 Fast
Casual magazine “Top 100 Movers and Shakers” company and a
2004 Nation's Restaurant News “Fast 50” brand. Other concepts
include Doc Green's Gourmet Salads named Best New Restaurant by INSite
Atlanta, Boneheads Grilled Fish and Piri Piri Chicken and Shane's Rib
Shack. PJ’s Coffee, PJ’s Coffee and Lounge, Planet Smoothie,
Planet Smoothie Café and its first co-branded concept, Planet Smoothie
and Nestle Toll House Café represent the portfolio’s beverage
concepts. Monkey Joe’s will be the first family entertainment concept
under the company’s portfolio. Collectively, Raving Brands expects
to open more than 1,000 locations nationwide by the end of 2008. For additional
information, visit www.ravingbrands.com.
About the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
NCMEC is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that works in cooperation
with the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention. NCMEC's congressionally mandated CyberTipline, a reporting
mechanism for child sexual exploitation, has handled more than 387,800
leads. Since its establishment in 1984, NCMEC has assisted law enforcement
with more than 119,800 missing child cases, resulting in the recovery
of more than 102,200 children. For more information about NCMEC, call
its toll-free, 24-hour hotline at 1-800-THE-LOST or visit its web site
at www.missingkids.com.
CONTACT:
Robin Ray
GolinHarris
404-367-2764
reray@golinharris.com
NCMEC
Communications Department
703-837-6111
media@ncmec.org
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