Carnival Foundation Donates $200,000 To Create Common Good To Help People Overcome Barriers To Employment

MIAMI (March 4, 2014) — Carnival Foundation, in partnership with Carnival Corporation & plc, the world’s largest cruise company, has awarded a $200,000 grant to Create Common Good, a nonprofit social enterprise that uses innovative food-related job training programs to help at-risk people find, perform and retain work with the goal of attaining self-sufficiency for them and their families.

Carnival Foundation’s grant will support Create Common Good’s efforts to help more people overcome barriers to employment, while supporting the organization’s growth and expansion into new markets. The two organizations also will explore opportunities to introduce custom-crafted Create Common Good food products such as gourmet meals, dressings, sauces and soups into Carnival Corporation’s shipboard menus across the company’s 10 cruise line brands.

“Carnival Foundation works with organizations like Create Common Good that seek to improve the lives of individuals and families, which is why they are a perfect community partner,” said Linda Coll, director of Carnival Foundation. “Although Create Common Good operates outside of our usual geographic focus, their impressive success rate and similar charter align with our own mission and we’re thrilled to partner with them.”

Create Common Good has engaged more than 3,000 volunteers since its inception in 2008, successfully placing 95 percent of its graduates in jobs with viable career paths. In addition to operating a small farm, the Boise, Idaho–based organization runs a commercial production kitchen and culinary training program led by world-renowned executive chef Brent Southcombe. With nearly three decades of experience in restaurants and five-star hotels across the globe, Southcombe was named Chef of the Nation for Australia and New Zealand in 1997.

“Our experiential job training program includes industry-relevant, skills-based training along with valuable vocational and language proficiencies, and confidence to prepare individuals to not only find gainful employment, but also thrive in their careers,” said Tara Russell, founder of Create Common Good. “Our work with Carnival Foundation will help us continue to reach new individuals and populations who are in extremely difficult situations and hugely in need of job training and skills as we work to expand into new markets with similar needs, while also meeting our long-term goal to be more self-sustaining as an organization.”

Carnival Foundation is dedicated to creating positive change through empowering youth, enhancing education and strengthening families. In the past five years alone, Carnival Corporation — which includes 10 brands — and its 120,000-plus employees have made more than $30 million in financial contributions and in-kind donations to a variety of local and national charities. Following the example set by Carnival’s founder, the late Ted Arison, and continued by his son Micky, chairman of Carnival Corporation, Carnival Foundation endeavors to make South Florida and other communities better places to live and work. For more information visit www.carnivalfoundation.com.

Create Common Good uses food to change lives and build healthy communities. In addition to providing job-training and placement services to refugees and other populations with barriers to employment, the nonprofit social enterprise offers youth development, healthy access programs and daily volume-production food services via a local farm and large commercial kitchen. Create Common Good programs transform lives and enrich communities by empowering self-sufficiency, developing youth leaders and improving the health of communities through experiential nutrition education and feeding programs. Visit www.createcommongood.org to learn more.