Ninety Nine Restaurant Takes Home National Restaurant Association’s Restaurant Neighbor Award
National winners honored for outstanding community involvement
Ninety Nine Restaurant announced today that it was honored with the National Restaurant Association’s Restaurant Neighbor Award. The national winners were announced on September 25 at the 2007 annual Public Affairs Conference in Washington, D.C.
The Restaurant Neighbor Award honors restaurant companies that have gone above and beyond in giving back to their communities through outstanding community involvement. On September 25, four national winners were flown to Washington, D.C. where they were each awarded $5,000 for their community project or favorite charity.
Ninety Nine Restaurant has a company-wide commitment to “A Passion to Serve” in the communities in which they do business, which means that team members strive to create awareness by giving back to those less fortunate in the community. Through its involvement with The Pine Street Inn and The Boys & Girls Clubs of America, the Ninety Nine prides itself in being an active member of the local community.
For 27 years, Ninety Nine Restaurants has supported the Pine Street Inn, New England’s largest homeless shelter for men and women. Through a series of monthly and annual functions, as well as one-time special events, the Ninety Nine has become the largest corporate contributor, donating more than $2.8 million, 200,000 meals and countless volunteer hours to helping the guests of the Pine Street Inn.
“It’s easy to write a check,” said Ninety Nine president John Grady. “But they need help as much as they need fund raising. Going into the Pine street Inn and serving 300 – 500 people in an evening – what better way for us to get involved? Serving food is what we do.”
Ninety Nine Restaurant also has a relationship at the local level with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, the oldest and largest organization that has a primary mission of service to youth. Each time a new restaurant location is opened, the Ninety Nine Restaurants makes a donation to benefit the local Boys & Girls Club that serves that location’s community. This year marks the 10 year anniversary of the relationship between the Ninety Nine Restaurants and The Boys & Girls Club.
“We are honored to receive this award and proud to be able to support wonderful organizations like the Boys & Girls Club and the Pine Street Inn that are really making a difference in the community,” said Grady. “We look forward to growing our relationships even further and giving back to the communities in which we operate.”
Ninety Nine Restaurants was also recently honored with a Partner of the Year award at the Boston Business Journal’s Corporate Philanthropy Summit on September 6.
About the Ninety Nine Restaurants
Owned by O’Charley’s Inc., the Ninety Nine Restaurants is New England’s first locally-based casual restaurant chain, established in 1952 at 99 State Street in Boston. Headquartered in Woburn, Mass., Ninety Nine Restaurants currently operates 114 restaurants and employs over 7,000 team members. For more information, please visit www.99restaurants.com.
