Casual Dining Group (CDG), the leading UK restaurant group that operates Bella Italia, Café Rouge and Las Iguanas, has launched a new partnership with The Prince’s Trust by pledging to raise £40k for the youth charity in a ‘Race to Rio’ challenge.
The aim of ‘Race to Rio’ is to raise the funds for The Prince’s Trust – which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year – by accumulatively cycling the 5,839 miles to Rio on 22 static bikes located at its restaurants and central offices. The event will take place over the last weekend of the Olympics.
The activity was devised by senior CDG members who took part in a Prince’s Trust ‘Zero to Hero’ day exercise. The day challenges companies to get their creative juices flowing and devise a plan to raise as much money as possible for the charity during a set time period.
CDG finance director Tim Doubleday, who attended the Zero to Hero day, commented, “We are delighted to announce our partnership with The Prince’s Trust – it’s a great charity and we hope the ‘Race to Rio’ initiative acts as a launch pad for a long and sustained relationship.
“Although we’re involved with a number of charities on a brand level, we wanted to bring together employees for a collective effort across the business. The Prince’s Trust was the perfect match and we’re looking forward to working closely together to help tackle industry issues, such as youth unemployment and the chef shortage crisis, in a sustainable fashion.”
Since HRH The Prince of Wales founded the charity in 1976, The Prince’s Trust has returned £1.4 billion in value to society through its help for disadvantaged young people over the last ten years alone.
In addition to fundraising activities, CDG plans to offer ongoing support to The Prince’s Trust by sending representatives to the charity’s ‘Get Hired’ days in order to recruit apprentices into the business.
Tara Leathers, Director of Fundraising at The Prince’s Trust, said, “We are immensely grateful to Casual Dining Group and their staff for their ‘Olympic’ efforts to raise vital funds for The Trust as we seek to support 100 more young people each day. We are particularly impressed by the scale of this campaign, with challenges going on in 22 different locations across the UK and with a target to raise £40,000.
“Over the last 40 years, we have helped 825,000 young people move into education, work or training and this year we aim to help 59,000 more. We could not do this without our partners and Casual Dining Group through this challenge and partnership is helping us reach our goal.”
You can support CDG in its attempt to raise £40k for The Princes Trust by visiting www.racetorio.co.uk to donate.