KFC India pledges Covid-relief and support with its ‘KFC Care’ initiative

MUMBAI: KFC India strengthens its efforts to provide support to team members and communities in need through the ongoing Covid wave. As part of its ‘KFC Care’ campaign, the brand has undertaken various relief initiatives. Supported by the Yum! Foundation, KFC Care pledges to provide medical supplies & essentials to hospitals, food relief kits and home care Covid kits to underprivileged families. To safeguard the safety and well-being of its team members across India, the brand has extended a Vaccination Drive for its team members, including delivery riders & restaurant managers, across 480+ KFC restaurants in the country.

Samir Menon, Managing Director, KFC India, said, “Since the onset of the pandemic last year, we have been making efforts to combat its impact on communities in need. Stepping up our efforts this year, we have extended support to our team members and identified need areas as hospital supplies to charitable hospitals, food kits as well as home care Covid essentials for underprivileged families. Our aim is to ensure we make a positive difference to those with limited access and means to get through these difficult times. Surging ahead, we will adopt a pre-emptive approach and continue to evaluate relevant areas of work; until we immerge stronger and better in this fight against Covid-19.”

In association with partners as ResponseNet and Smile Foundation, KFC Care would provide relief to families of migrant workers and daily wage labourers, with kits of food & hygiene essentials, serving more than 1 million meals. To support underprivileged families nursing diagnosed patients, home care covid kits will be provided to them. In addition, medical equipment for Covid care will be provided to more than 50 public and charitable hospitals. Ramping up efforts to safeguard the health & safety of team members & customers, the brand is covering the cost of both vaccines to 10,000 team members, including delivery riders, and is extending amenities as flexibility in scheduling shifts, option to rest with time-off after getting vaccinated, etc. to get both shots done. The KFC Care campaign will continue to access any further needs and relevant interventions thereby, over the next few months.

KFC India has also made the following commitments to support its people and communities during the ongoing phase of the pandemic.

Medical Fund for team members: Yum! Brands Foundation offers the Global Employee Medical Relief Fund, to provide financial support for KFC team members at company and franchise-owned restaurants all across the world, who may be diagnosed with or who are caring for someone diagnosed with COVID-19. Set up at the beginning of the pandemic last year, the Fund continues to support team members & their families through the ongoing phase of the Covid wave.

Employee well-being: Keeping in mind the health & well-being of employees, the brand has enabled access to isolation centers as well as for scarce resources as hospital beds & oxygen supply. Employees have easy and quick access to doctor consultations for Covid medication, mental wellness as well as post Covid care guidance & nutrition consultation. Taking cognizance of the need to take time off, the brand has declared additional ‘Recharge Holidays’ in the rest of the year. There are also weekly Wednesday Treats for the entire family to come together and enjoy their favourite meals.

Continuing to serve consumers through Safe & Contactless food channels: Consumers can continue to access their KFC favourites in an easy, safe, and completely ‘contactless’ manner. Contactless Delivery or Takeaway options are available on prepaid orders, thereby ensuring no up-close contact with delivery riders at the time of receiving the food. Taking it a step further, is KFC to Your Car/Bike when the order is delivered to your parked car, within the vicinity of the restaurant. Tamper-evident seals used on the food delivery bags reassure that the food has been untouched by anyone once packed and until delivered to the customer. The promise of ‘Contactless’ is extended into dine-in as well with modified restaurant designs to reinforce social distancing, QR code ordering and measures like distanced seating arrangements, demarcated waiting spots in the queues, controlled customer inflow, etc. KFC continues to implement stringent measures such as regular temperature checks, intensified sanitization of surfaces at the restaurants, social distancing, even in the kitchens, etc. across all restaurants, with its 4X Safety Promise.