Environmental, worker justice, human health and animal welfare organizations have come together in a historic campaign to ask the nation’s largest full-service restaurant company to improve its labor practices and commit to serving “good food” that’s better for people, the planet and animals. In November 2015 more than 50 organizations signed a letter asking Darden — the parent company of popular chains including Olive Garden and Longhorn Steakhouse — to make its menu healthier, more sustainable, humane and fair by improving at least 20 percent of its sourcing practices by the year 2020.
The Good Food Now campaign is led by Animal Welfare Institute, Center for Biological Diversity, the Food Chain Workers Alliance, Friends of the Earth, Green America, the Restaurant Opportunities Center and the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, with support from a growing number of individuals and organizations.
Sign the petition to demand Good Food Now at Olive Garden and other Darden restaurants.
Why Darden?
Darden Restaurants owns and operates more than 1,500 restaurants worldwide under seven well-known brand names: Olive Garden, Longhorn Steakhouse, Yard House, The Capital Grille, Bahama Breeze, Seasons 52 and Eddie V’s. Through its popular restaurant chains, the company employs 150,000 people and serves more than 320 million meals a year, making Darden Restaurants our nation’s leading casual dining operator and a major influence on our food system.
Darden has a unique opportunity to use its considerable purchasing power to support a just, sustainable and healthy food system. Unfortunately, many Darden restaurants serve unhealthy, unsustainable meals — including meals with factory-farmed meat and dairy products produced with routine antibiotics, hormones and other harmful chemicals. Darden also sources from suppliers that violate human rights, and pays some of its workers poverty wages, as low as $2.13 per hour before tips.