Elachee awarded $4,000 grant by Darden Restaurants

GAINESVILLE - Elachee Nature Science Center has been selected to receive a $4,000 grant as part of the Restaurant Community Grants program from the Darden Foundation, the charitable arm of Darden Restaurants, Inc.

The grants program, now in its second year, empowers each restaurant in the Darden family of brands to help award a $1,000 grant to support local community programs.

Darden's Red Lobster, Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, Bahama Breeze, Seasons 52, The Capital Grille and Eddie V's brands participated in the program. Many restaurants and brands worked together to award one nonprofit organization with a larger grant and make a greater impact in their community. The restaurants will award more than $1.9 million to more than 850 nonprofit organizations in the U.S. and Canada. Nonprofits receiving grants support one of Darden's three key focus areas: access to postsecondary education, preservation of natural resources and hunger.

"The Darden Foundation has proven to truly be supportive of Elachee, and has joined us in our mission to promote conservation education," Elachee President & CEO Andrea Timpone said.

"Our employees are incredibly passionate about the communities where they live, and our restaurant teams are in a position to understand and help address the needs of their communities," said Drew Madsen, Darden Restaurants' president and chief operating officer. "We're all proud to build on that passion through the grants program and bring real, local citizenship to life by enabling each restaurant to make a difference in their backyard."

For more information about the Darden Foundation, please visit www.dardenfoundation.com. For additional information on Elachee Nature Science Center, please visit www.elachee.org, or call at 770-535-1976.