DUBLIN, Ohio (April 26, 2005) - Today in America, children in foster care wait an average of five years to be adopted. To a child, five years is a lifetime.

The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption is launching a groundbreaking initiative to dramatically improve opportunities for children to move more quickly through the adoption process. This national program, called Wendy's® Wonderful Kids, funds adoption recruiters focused exclusively on finding permanent homes for foster care children.

There are 126,000 U.S. children in the foster care system waiting to be adopted.** According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Administration on Children, Youth and Families, Children's Bureau (AFCARS), September 2004 (reporting on 2002, the most recent available statistics): There are 532,000 children in the U.S. foster care system; 126,000 of them are available for adoption, but only 53,000 of them were adopted. This is due in part to social workers not having enough time to ensure both the safety of children under their care and actively recruit adoptive families.

The new program will award grants to local adoption agencies to hire 100 recruiters across America by the end of 2006 and place 8,000 to 10,000 foster care children with adoptive families within five years.

"Each year 20,000 children in foster care age out of the public child welfare system without a permanent family," said Rita Soronen, Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption's executive director. "We fervently hope Wendy's Wonderful Kids will vastly improve the success of foster care adoption efforts in America by finding homes for the children who most need them."