NCMEC> Partnership with Moe's Grill for Safer Restaurants
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 http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/NewsEventServlet?LanguageCountry=en_US&PageId=2363