CORPORATERESPONSIBILITY Enzian Theater H.O.P.E. Farm At Darden Restaurants, we believe leadership  also means being a leader in the communities  where we do business. We believe if you want  to make a difference in the world, you have  to be involved. The principle of community  responsibility has always been one of our core  values and a cornerstone of our corporate  culture, starting with our founder Bill Darden. a stronger company. In the same way, we also  believe supporting and fostering diversity across  the nation makes our communities stronger. company at number 33 for 2004, and has  recognized the Company for having one of  the most diverse boards of directors in cor- porate America; and  Diversity, Inc.  magazine  recently named Darden one of 20 notewor- thy companies for diversity, citing, among  other things, our multicultural marketing  and ethnic media spending.  As a juvenile investigator with the Ft. Worth,  Texas, police department, Gary Randle, now  executive director and co-founder of H.O.P.E.  Farm, saw first-hand the negative effects  growing up without a father or positive male  role models can have on young boys. “Many  of these children end up in the criminal justice  system,” he says. “I felt something needed to  be done for them, something more than arrest  and incarceration.”  Randle started mentoring school kids on his  days off, and later, along with H.O.P.E.’s co-founder Noble Crawford, started an after- school basketball program that eventually  grew into H.O.P.E. (Helping Other People  Excel) Farm, Inc.  The two men restored an old crack house and  turned it into a facility that provides academic  help, life skills, and recreational activities every  day after school and all day in the summer. The  program specifically targets boys from single  parent homes who lack a positive male influ- ence in their lives. “Our goal is to help these  young boys become productive men who do  what’s right,” Randle explains. “Our posture is  that it’s easier to prepare than to repair.”  These efforts have placed Darden among the  top U.S. companies recognized for diversity.  In October 2003, the Executive Leadership  Council – the nation’s largest association of  African American officers of  Fortune  100  companies – presented Darden with its  Corporate Best Practices Award for diversity  excellence;  Fortune  magazine has ranked  Darden among the top 50 companies for  diversity since 1999, including placing the  We respect and cherish the different perspec- tives and experiences our diverse employees  bring to the workplace and believe they make us  Throughout the Company and in every  community where we do business, Darden  Restaurants promotes and celebrates diversity…  not just because it’s the right thing to do, but  also because we know it’s critical to our future  growth. That’s why diversity excellence is a  strategic enabler at Darden, and diversity is  one of the Company’s core values. In addition to the CAP Program, Darden  and the Darden Restaurants Foundation also  support national organizations that further  our diversity goals, including the National  Minority Supplier Development Council;  the Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality  Alliance; the Women’s Foodservice Forum;  and the Executive Leadership Council. Here are just a few examples of our community  involvement during fiscal 2004. CAP focuses on helping our restaurant general  managers and directors of operations develop  ongoing relationships with organizations like  these in local communities around the country. That’s one of the goals of our Community  Alliance Program (CAP). Through CAP,  Darden has established partnerships with  more than 150 organizations that support  diversity efforts on the local and national  level, including the Urban League; NAACP;  National Council of LaRaza; The East Los  Angeles Community Union; National MBA  Association Recruitment; INROADS; the  United Negro College Fund; and African  American, Hispanic, and Asian American  Chambers of Commerce. That’s why for more than a decade we’ve  poured millions of dollars and countless  volunteer hours into the communities in  which we operate. We use a multi-pronged  philanthropic approach that combines the  financial resources of the Darden Restaurants  Foundation with the hands-on work of  thousands of Darden volunteers across the  country. We’re also committed to funding  programs that foster diversity, fairness, and  inclusiveness. Because only by bringing  together the skills, knowledge, life experiences,  and differing perspectives of all our citizens  can we hope to create a lasting impact.  PROMOTING & CELEBRATING  DIVERSITY SUPPORTING KIDS H.O.P.E. Farm 18  Darden Restaurants