Souplantation/Sweet Tomatoes Restaurants Raise an Additional $400,000 for the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital® Fight against Childhood Cancer

SAN DIEGO, March 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Topping its successful first-year campaign by $100,000, Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes guests, team members, farmers and business partners have raised $400,000 for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital^® to help kids battling cancer and other life-threatening diseases, owner Garden Fresh Restaurants, LLC. announced today.

The restaurants and St. Jude wrapped up its latest national giving campaign last week and all money raised will support the St. Jude mission: Finding Cures. Saving Children^®.  Actor Patrick Warburton, the voice of the Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes "Discover Fresh" advertising campaign, introduced Garden Fresh to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital by sharing his personal commitment to the St. Jude mission. Garden Fresh Chief Operating Officer Greg Keller presented St. Jude with a check at Warburton's annual Celebrity Golf Tournament fundraising event on March 11 in Palm Desert, California.  The Warburton event, now in its seventh year, raised a record-breaking $2,227,000 in the just-ended campaign.

"We're honored to be part of this important fight to find cures and to support the kids and their families enduring such difficult circumstances," Keller said. "We're very grateful and proud of our guests and team members who stepped up to make a difference for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital."

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is where doctors often send their toughest cases because St. Jude has the world's best survival rates for some of the most aggressive forms of cancers. Because of generous donors, families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing or food – because all a family should worry about is helping their child live. Because the majority of St. Jude funding comes from individual contributors, St. Jude has the freedom to focus on what matters most – saving kids regardless of their financial situation.

Treatments invented at St. Jude have helped push the overall childhood cancer survival rate from 20 percent to more than 80 percent since it opened in 1962. St. Jude is working to drive the overall survival rate for childhood cancer to 90 percent and its doctors and scientists won't stop working until no child dies from cancer. For more information, please visit www.stjude.org.

About St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is leading the way the world understands, treats and defeats childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. It is the only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center devoted solely to children. Treatments invented at St. Jude have helped push the overall childhood cancer survival rate from 20 percent to 80 percent since the hospital opened more than 50 years ago. St. Jude is working to drive the overall survival rate for childhood cancer to 90 percent, and we won't stop until no child dies from cancer. St. Jude freely shares the discoveries it makes, and every child saved at St. Jude means doctors and scientists worldwide can use that knowledge to save thousands more children. Families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing or food – because all a family should worry about is helping their child live. Join the St. Jude mission by visiting stjude.org, liking St. Jude on Facebook (facebook.com/stjude) and following us on Twitter (@stjude).

About Garden Fresh Restaurants, LLC.
Each day begins fresh at 103 company-owned Garden Fresh restaurants in 11 states.  More than 300 million guests since 1978 have helped us be number one in fresh produce and salads, made-from-scratch soups, hot pastas, freshly baked breads and muffins, fresh fruit, desserts, and more.  Guests have the freedom to create their own wholesome meal in a one-of-a-kind dining experience in a friendly atmosphere and all at an everyday value.  The company is headquartered in San Diego, CA, and has two brand names:  Souplantation in Southern California, and Sweet Tomatoes elsewhere.  Like us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Souplantation) and follow us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/souplantation) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/souplantation/).

SOURCE Garden Fresh Restaurants