mlk_2011_12_26
Tutu to speak at MLK breakfast
December 19, 2011
| General Mills Corporate Communications |
Naomi Tutu, global human rights activist and daughter of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, will be the featured speaker at the 22nd annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Breakfast on Jan. 16 at the Minneapolis Convention Center. The breakfast is an opportunity to celebrate the life and legacy of the man and movement that not only changed civil rights laws for all Americans, but also set in motion the drive for human rights reform worldwide. The theme of this year's breakfast is "Building Peace and Unity within the Global Community."
General Mills and its employees and retirees long have been supporters of the breakfast, which reflects the company’s mission of Nourishing Lives. A committee of more than 30 volunteers – primarily General Mills employees – plans and hosts the event each year.
The breakfast, which typically sells out each year, will be broadcast live on Twin Cities Public Television.
The annual holiday breakfast dovetails with a weekend of activities in the Twin Cities hosted by the General Mills Black Champions Network. The employee network’s multi-day MLK Leadership Summit features development and recognition sessions, along with networking and social opportunities.
The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Breakfast is a partnership between the General Mills Foundation and UNCF (United Negro College Fund), which supports the education of more than 60,000 college students each year. Dr. King was an alumnus of UNCF member institution Morehouse College.
Joins prestigious list As the breakfast keynote speaker, Tutu joins a prestigious list of event speakers that includes Gen. Colin Powell, USA (Ret), the Rev. Joseph Lowery, Andrew Young, U.S. Rep. John Lewis and the late Yolanda King.
Tutu’s experience growing up black and female in apartheid South Africa led her to choose a career as an activist for human rights. According to Tutu, these early experiences taught her how much we all lose when any of us is judged purely on physical attributes.
In 2011, she became an ambassador for Join My Village, the innovative, online social change initiative facilitated by the humanitarian organization CARE with financial support from General Mills and Merck that seeks to empower women and girls in the developing world.
The annual holiday breakfast began when UNCF and the General Mills Foundation joined together to host a community celebration to honor the legacy of Dr. King. What started with 800 guests in 1991 now has grown so large that it reaches capacity seating at the Minneapolis Convention Center as one of the largest Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday breakfasts in the nation.
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