Denver-based Qdoba Mexican Grill is thrilled to commit $10,000 and employee volunteer time to Habitat for Humanity in a variety of local initiatives this year. The support comes in response to a company-wide survey that helped the company identify three categories of charitable giving around which Qdoba will now focus its charitable efforts.
On Monday, Oct. 8, at its annual franchise board meeting in Denver, Qdoba executives presented a $10,000 check to the Denver chapter of Habitat for Humanity. Qdoba’s vendors contributed to the donation during the company’s annual Franchise Business Update Golf Tournament . To further its commitment to Habitat for Humanity in the Denver area, teams of Qdoba employees will help build one of Habitat for Humanity’s “Home for the Holidays” in Englewood that will help provide a new home for the Dut family, a family of six who are refugees from Sudan, to move in before the end of the year.
After leaving Sudan and then living in refugee camps in Egypt, safety and security are very much on the mind of Guot and Achol Dut., “I want a much better future for my kids,” said Guot Dut, father of two boys and two girls. “Now that I will be a homeowner, I know that if something happens to me, my children will be safe and have a home.”
This week, a variety of Qdoba executives from corporate market stores throughout the nation will travel to New Orleans where, in addition to holding an operations meeting, they will help build a home for a family displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
In an effort to streamline its charitable programs, Qdoba conducted a company-wide survey in August that asked both its corporate and franchise employees to indicate which categories of charitable programs they’d like Qdoba to support. The three categories that emerged from the survey were Health & Wellness, Hunger, and Youth and Family Initiatives.
“Our employees told us that one of the categories they’d like Qdoba to support is youth and family initiatives like Habitat For Humanity,” said Gary Beisler, Chief Executive Officer of Qdoba Mexican Grill. “Although we are still formalizing the details of our charitable giving programs across all categories, we couldn’t be more thrilled to answer our employees’ request and believe these are the first steps in a long relationship that allows us to continue to be able to provide the comfort of home to families in need.”
Qdoba plans to formalize its charitable giving programs later this year and launch into its new initiatives in 2008. Most importantly, Qdoba plans to create a program that will allow all Qdoba locations to continue to support their local community initiatives while also addressing need within the employee-identified categories of support.