Unilever Philippines, Employees & their Families Walk to End Hunger
Unilever Philippines partnered with the United Nations World Food Programme in its fight to end child hunger through the “End Hunger: Walk the World” event last Sunday, June 1, 2008.
Held in Fort Bonifacio Global City, Taguig, it was a global advocacy and fundraising event simultaneously held across 24 different time zones and within a 24-hour time frame. Proceeds of “End Hunger: Walk the World” directly benefited thousands of children in conflict-affected areas in Mindanao through WFP’s School Feeding Programme and Food for Education activities, as they provide nutritious food as incentive for children to attend and stay in school.
Unilever, through a 3-year global partnership with UN-WFP called “Together for Child Vitality”, aims to improve the nutrition and health of poor, undernourished school-aged children through WFP’s school feeding programme around the world. This partnership is at the very heart of Unilever’s corporate responsibility strategy to “do well by doing good”.
In the Philippines, Unilever supported a delegation of at least 500 employee volunteers, led by its key executives - Chito Macapagal (VP for Corporate Affairs), Benjie Yap (Managing Director for Foods), Zafer Unver (Managing Director for Unilever Foodsolutions) and AJ Franco (VP for Supply Chain).“Walk the World is an opportune time to demonstrate our commitment to end child hunger by literally walking our talk”, states Jika Dalupan, Corporate Relations Director, further giving emphasis on Unilever Philippines’ commitment to fight child hunger and malnutrition during the opening ceremonies of “End Hunger: Walk the World”.
The Unilever delegation joined over 3,500 Filipinos during the walk, which was led by a tribal mardi gras troupe (ati-atihan dancers) and drum beaters that walked a total of 3.5 kilometers around Bonifacio Global City. They were joined by KC Concepcion (National Ambassador Against Hunger), Valerie Guarnieri (WFP Country Director and Representative), Secretary Esperanza Cabral (Department of Social Welfare and Development) and Hon. Francis Pangilinan (Senate Majority Leader).
Fifteen (15) major corporations and organisers also took part in the fight against hunger in the Philippines, including TNT, Fort Bonifacion Development Corporation, RockEd Philippines, Allied Bank, Globe Telecom, Tetra Pak, the Australian Agency for International Development, Pag-ibig Fund, Krispy Kreme, Max’s, JCI Makati, Sunkist, Philippine National Red Cross to name a few.
Unilever Philippines, makers of Knorr, further supports the thrusts of “End Hunger: Walk the World” through the company’s “Pasiglahin ang Batang Pinoy” Feeding Programme. The programme focuses on children’s nutrition by providing 30 severely undernourished children from ages 0 – 6 with one (1) nutritious meal a day for a period of 6 months per barangay module. Since 2002, Unilever Philippines and Knorr have completed nearly 40 feeding modules in Manila, Paranaque, Las Pinas, Pasig, Cavite and Batangas, benefiting over 1,000 undernourished children.
