LOUISVILLE, Ky.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Yum! Brands (NYSE: YUM), the world’s largest restaurant company and parent of KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, is launching its annual World Hunger Relief campaign to help stop world hunger with multi-Grammy Award winner and pop superstar Christina Aguilera lending her powerful voice as the effort’s global spokesperson. World Hunger Relief is the world’s largest private sector hunger relief effort, spanning 110 countries, 36,000 KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Long John Silver’s and A&W All-American Food restaurants and over one million employees, to raise awareness, volunteerism and funds for the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and other hunger relief agencies.

Aguilera is raising awareness of the hunger issue by appearing in the World Hunger Relief campaign’s new global public service announcement and advertisement, made possible by KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, that will start airing at the end of September. The black and white PSA captures Aguilera, accompanied by a guitarist, attracting a crowd on a busy corner in Los Angeles as she sings Beautiful to raise money for hunger relief. Graphics illustrate that everyone can do something to help, “all it takes is a dollar and you, hope is in your hands.” The new :15, :30 and :60 second PSA was created by DraftFCB in Chicago, directed by the award-winning Phil Joanou and edited by Beast in Los Angeles.

Aguilera will also appear in World Hunger Relief restaurant posters with the quote, “Together, we have the power to save lives and go from hunger to hope” and online efforts, including the campaign’s web site FromHungertoHope.com. Consumers can log on to the campaign’s web site or go to any KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Long John Silver’s or A&W All-American Food restaurant to donate (no purchase necessary).

Global hunger has reached epic proportions this year – with more than 1 billion hungry people around the world – due to the convergence of the global economic slowdown; high food prices; increased competition for products that produce energy; severe droughts and floods due to climate change; and increasing demand from growing economies in Asia and South America.

“As a mother, I think it’s unacceptable that a child dies every six seconds somewhere around the world from hunger and I want to do something about it,” said Aguilera. “By lending my voice in the new PSA for World Hunger Relief, I hope to raise even more awareness about the issue and move millions of people from hunger to hope.”

“As a society, we should not tolerate that global hunger is worse than ever this year with more than 1 billion people going to bed hungry every day,” said David Novak, Chairman and CEO, Yum! Brands, Inc. “We are thankful for Christina’s passion to join us in the fight against hunger and help us raise attention to this critical issue and save millions of lives. We believe it is our privilege and responsibility to find a meaningful solution to this problem,” added Novak.

Novak, the presidents from KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, other senior executives and franchise leaders traveled to El Salvador in August to see WFP’s relief efforts. Yum! is announcing that it will donate the first $1 million it raises this year to El Salvador.

Yum! is also co-leading the Business Council to End Global Hunger. The new effort will encourage trade associations, companies and other private sector entities in the United States to support the Roadmap to End Global Hunger – an advocacy initiative laying out a comprehensive strategy for the U.S. government to set the stage for a permanent end to global hunger and poverty.

WFP is the world’s largest humanitarian organization fighting hunger worldwide. WFP is currently facing critical funding shortfalls which means it is being forced to reduce, and in some cases, cut food rations to the world’s hungry, making the World Hunger Relief campaign even more crucial this year.

“WFP knows how to reach those most in need and will do what it takes to get a cup of food to any kid in the world,” said WFP’s Executive Director, Josette Sheeran. “But without funding, we can’t reach these kids. It takes just 25 cents to fill a cup with food. The World Hunger Relief campaign helps fill the cup for tens of thousands of kids – and we’re so grateful for it.”

This year, Yum! plans to generate the equivalent of nearly $50 million in awareness of the hunger issue through a PSA, advertising, public relations, web-based communications and in-restaurant posters. The Company’s employees and franchisees will be volunteering their time around the globe at hunger relief agencies, food banks, soup kitchens and launching fundraisers.

World Hunger Relief kicks off its month-long campaign in the U.S. starting Sept. 24 (Long John Silver’s/A&W All-American Food), Sept. 27 (Pizza Hut), Sept. 28 (KFC) and Oct. 8 (Taco Bell). The Yum! Foundation will be covering WFP’s administrative fee so that funds collected online and at its restaurants will go directly towards feeding poor school children in the developing world and helping villages become self-sustainable. Every U.S. dollar raised will provide four meals for hungry children.

Since World Hunger Relief launched in 2007, more than 1 million of the Company’s employees, franchisees and their families have volunteered more than 9 million hours to aid hunger relief efforts in communities worldwide. The effort has raised $36 million for WFP and other hunger relief organizations and is helping to provide approximately 160 million meals and save the lives of about 4 million people in remote corners of the world.

Yum!’s World Hunger Relief efforts are highlighted in a new book by award-winning journalists Roger Thurow and Scott Kilman, Enough: Why The World’s Poorest Starve In An Age of Plenty. For more information, visit EnoughtheBook.com.

At the Clinton Global Initiative last year, Yum! Brands was recognized for its hunger relief efforts. Over a five-year span, the Company pledged to: raise and donate at least $80 million to help WFP and others provide 200 million meals for hungry school children in developing countries; donate 20 million hours of hunger relief volunteer service in the communities in which it operates; donate $200 million worth of its prepared food to hunger agencies in the United States; and use the Company’s marketing clout to generate awareness of the hunger problem, and convince others to become part of the solution.

Yum! and its brands have been committed to fighting hunger for more than a decade by donating over $46 million of prepared food annually to the underprivileged in the United States. Since the company went public in 1997, it has donated more than $550 million of its food to hunger relief agencies in the U.S. The Company also has been the primary sponsor of the Dare to Care Food Bank in Louisville for nine years, and has donated $9 million to this local Agency.

Yum! Brands, Inc., (NYSE:YUM) based in Louisville, Kentucky, is the world’s largest restaurant company in terms of system restaurants, with more than 36,000 restaurants in over 110 countries and territories. The company is ranked #239 on the Fortune 500 List, with revenues in excess of $11 billion in 2008. Four of the Company’s restaurant brands – KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and Long John Silver’s – are the global leaders of the chicken, pizza, Mexican–style food and quick–service seafood categories, respectively. Outside the United States, the Yum! Brands system opened more than four new restaurants each day of the year, making it a leader in international retail development. The company has consistently been recognized for its reward and recognition culture, diversity leadership, community giving, and consistent shareholder returns.

Christina Aguilera is one of the most successful recording artists of the past decade, selling more than 42 million records worldwide. Aguilera’s 1999 self–titled debut album spawned three #1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100. Aguilera has won four GRAMMY Awards and one Latin GRAMMY Award.

WFP is the world’s largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide, and the United Nations’ frontline agency for hunger solutions. In 2009, WFP aims to feed 108 million people in 74 countries.

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