Community Involvement

We’ve all been there. That point when you realize you ordered too much food at a restaurant or bought more groceries than you can eat before expiration. Throwing away perfectly good food knowing that there are plenty of hungry people out there who could benefit from a hot meal, you might feel a moment of guilt when you chuck your leftovers in the trash. In these instances we all have a hand to play in the food waste epidemic and it’s no different for global businesses.

The sad fact is that 30- 40% of all food is wasted each year. Yet, 1 in 9 people suffer from chronic hunger. The simple math says that hunger is a solvable problem and a more connected food chain would provide enough sustenance for everyone. As the largest pizza company in the world, it is Pizza Hut’s privilege and responsibility to fight waste and hunger wherever we can and since the early 90’s we’ve been using the Harvest food donation program to help combat these two crippling global issues.

Pizza Hut has a strong legacy with food donations, dating back to 1992 when we became the first company to create a national surplus food donation program. At Pizza Hut, we donate error pizzas, no-show pizzas and leftover buffet items that are perfectly safe to eat. Partner charities make weekly pickups and then distribute to families living in the area. To date, FDC has helped Pizza Hut coordinate more than 94 million pounds of donated food, and we continue to donate 5 million pounds to over 2,500 domestic charities each year.

BOOK IT! motivates children to read by rewarding their reading accomplishments with praise, recognition and pizza. The program is simple for the teacher to use, flexible because goals match reading ability, and fun because achieving a goal is a great reason to celebrate! BOOK IT! was created in 1984 and currently reaches over 14 million students in 38,000 elementary schools annually.

BOOK IT! runs every school year from October through March. The teacher sets a reading goal for each child in the class. A tracking chart and reproducibles are included to make it that much easier. And, we now offer an online Teacher Dashboard that teachers can use to track student’s reading time through our at-home reading tools! As soon as a child meets the monthly reading goal, the teacher recognizes him or her with a Reading Award Certificate.