## CORPORATERESPONSIBILITY 

H.O.P.E. Farm 

At Darden Restaurants, we believe leadership also means being a leader in the communities where we do business. We believe if you want to make a difference in the world, you have to be involved. The principle of community responsibility has always been one of our core values and a cornerstone of our corporate culture, starting with our founder Bill Darden. 

That’s why for more than a decade we’ve poured millions of dollars and countless volunteer hours into the communities in which we operate. We use a multi-pronged philanthropic approach that combines the financial resources of the Darden Restaurants Foundation with the hands-on work of thousands of Darden volunteers across the country. We’re also committed to funding programs that foster diversity, fairness, and inclusiveness. Because only by bringing together the skills, knowledge, life experiences, and differing perspectives of all our citizens can we hope to create a lasting impact. 

Here are just a few examples of our community involvement during fiscal 2004. 

## PROMOTING & CELEBRATING DIVERSITY 

Throughout the Company and in every community where we do business, Darden Restaurants promotes and celebrates diversity… not just because it’s the right thing to do, but also because we know it’s critical to our future growth. That’s why diversity excellence is a strategic enabler at Darden, and diversity is one of the Company’s core values. 

We respect and cherish the different perspec- tives and experiences our diverse employees bring to the workplace and believe they make us 

a stronger company. In the same way, we also believe supporting and fostering diversity across the nation makes our communities stronger. 

That’s one of the goals of our Community Alliance Program (CAP). Through CAP, Darden has established partnerships with more than 150 organizations that support diversity efforts on the local and national level, including the Urban League; NAACP; National Council of LaRaza; The East Los Angeles Community Union; National MBA Association Recruitment; INROADS; the United Negro College Fund; and African American, Hispanic, and Asian American Chambers of Commerce. 

CAP focuses on helping our restaurant general managers and directors of operations develop ongoing relationships with organizations like these in local communities around the country. 

In addition to the CAP Program, Darden and the Darden Restaurants Foundation also support national organizations that further our diversity goals, including the National Minority Supplier Development Council; the Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance; the Women’s Foodservice Forum; and the Executive Leadership Council. 

These efforts have placed Darden among the top U.S. companies recognized for diversity. In October 2003, the Executive Leadership Council – the nation’s largest association of African American officers of Fortune  100 companies – presented Darden with its Corporate Best Practices Award for diversity excellence; Fortune  magazine has ranked Darden among the top 50 companies for diversity since 1999, including placing the 

company at number 33 for 2004, and has recognized the Company for having one of the most diverse boards of directors in cor- porate America; and Diversity, Inc.  magazine recently named Darden one of 20 notewor- thy companies for diversity, citing, among other things, our multicultural marketing and ethnic media spending. 

## SUPPORTING KIDS 

## H.O.P.E. Farm 

As a juvenile investigator with the Ft. Worth, Texas, police department, Gary Randle, now executive director and co-founder of H.O.P.E. Farm, saw first-hand the negative effects growing up without a father or positive male role models can have on young boys. “Many of these children end up in the criminal justice system,” he says. “I felt something needed to be done for them, something more than arrest and incarceration.” 

Randle started mentoring school kids on his days off, and later, along with H.O.P.E.’s co-founder Noble Crawford, started an after- school basketball program that eventually grew into H.O.P.E. (Helping Other People Excel) Farm, Inc. 

The two men restored an old crack house and turned it into a facility that provides academic help, life skills, and recreational activities every day after school and all day in the summer. The program specifically targets boys from single parent homes who lack a positive male influ- ence in their lives. “Our goal is to help these young boys become productive men who do what’s right,” Randle explains. “Our posture is that it’s easier to prepare than to repair.” 

Enzian Theater 

