Concord Hospitality Celebrates Year-long Community Service Initiative Today with Share Day Events in Seven Cities

Local Feed the Children Programs Expanded to Include Global Outreach with Clean the World

RALEIGH, N.C., June 14, 2012— Concord Hospitality Enterprises, one of the nation’s leading hotel developer/owner/operators, and its affiliate hotels, cap off a year of community service, and environmental awareness today with their annual Share Day volunteer event, organized in seven cities in the US and Canada.

The Share Day event will bring together some 250 hotel employees to distribute tractor trailer loads containing approximately 20,000 pounds of donated food and sundries at seven Feed the Children, (FTC) distribution sites. Feed the Children is a non-profit, worldwide relief organization based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The donations will provide non-perishable food and essentials like toilet paper and personal hygiene items sufficient to sustain a family of four for one week. In all, approximately 3,000 families will receive 70 tons of goods at the end of the day.

Share Day is the culmination of year-long fundraising and community outreach events led by Concord employees to raise money to transport the food donations to the distribution sites. To date, Concord has donated more than $300,000 to fund FTC transportation costs.

“We are mindful that, even in two of the world’s wealthiest countries, many families face the day without proper nutrition,” said Mark G. Laport, president and CEO of Concord. “We launched Share Day four years ago to play a role to help address that issue.

“We also expanded our efforts this year by teaming up with Clean the World to help prevent the spread of disease worldwide through simple soap and water hygiene,” he added. Concord’s 88 hotels collect the unused portions of soap, shampoos and lotions, normally destined for a landfill, and donate them to Clean the World, which recycles the products into bars of soap. The soap is then distributed in areas where good health is threatened by lack of supplies.”

In March, two Concord executives delivered 10,000 bars of soap, made from the hotel’s recycled amenities, to two ghettos, two orphanages and a community living on a landfill in Guatemala. Since its affiliation with Clean the World began in 2011, the company has diverted 16 tons of amenities from landfills and generated 107,000 bars of recycled soap.

“What made the experience in Guatemala so meaningful was that our team personally collected the products for recycling and we delivered these potentially lifesaving supplies directly into the hands of people who desperately need it,” said Nick Kellock, Concord’s executive vice president and COO. “Every year, 3.5 million children die from diseases that could have been prevented if the families had access to something as simple as soap. Concord’s donation is helping to save lives by finding a good use for leftover products that we all take for granted. We are in the business of hospitality, so it’s particularly gratifying when you can marry your business endeavors with your community efforts.”

Concord Hospitality Share Day locations are:

• Toronto, Ontario, Canada Receiving organization: Rexdale Alliance Church
• Cleveland, Ohio, Receiving organization: Hunger Task Force of Greater Cleveland
• Pittsburgh, Pa., Receiving organization: Pittsburgh Family Development
• Houston, Texas, Receiving organization: Bethel’s Heavenly Hands
• West Des Moines, Iowa, Receiving organization: The Salvation Army
• Raleigh, N.C., Receiving organization: With Love from Jesus Ministries
• Saddle Brook, N.J., Receiving organization: Center for Food Action Warehouse

About Feed the Children
Since 1979, Feed the Children has consistently ranked as one of the largest international charities in the U.S., based on private, non-government support. Our mission is providing hope and resources for those without life’s essentials. In FY 2011, Feed the Children distributed more than 104 million pounds of food and other essentials to children and their families in all 50 states and internationally. For more information, visit www.feedthechildren.org.

About Clean theWorld Foundation Inc.
Clean the World Foundation Inc. is a 501 (c) (3) charitable organization. The Foundation executes its mission of saving millions of lives around the globe by leading a global hygiene revolution to distribute recycled soap and hygiene products to children and families suffering from high death rates due to the top two killers of children worldwide – acute respiratory infection (pneumonia) and diarrheal diseases (cholera). For more information visit: http://www.cleantheworld.org.