FoodBank's success is heavily dependent on our partnerships with major companies. Two such partnerships are with Pick n Pay, the Sunday Times and the Avusa Group (including The Sunday Tmes and its sister newspapers).
During the last 12 months, Pick n Pay have donated to the hungry, via FoodBank, over 1 000 000kg of food with an estimated value of over R13 million. That's wonderful, yet they went one better. In late 2011, Pick n Pay partnered with The Avusa Group and FoodBank to conceive and run the Hampers Against Hunger campaign. The campaign ran from 4 November 2011 to 4 January 2012 and encouraged the public to donate to FoodBank by depositing cash in till-point cash boxes at all Pick n Pay stores nationwide, by donating the points earned using their Smart Shopper loyalty cards, or by adding a donation to their till point slips. In addition, The Sunday Times donated R100 to FoodBank for each subscription bought during the period of the campaign.
The campaign was heavily supported by extensive publicity generously provided free by The Avusa Group. This included very prominent articles in the Sunday Times, Sunday World, The Times, Sowetan, Weekend Post, Saturday Dispatch, Daily Dispatch and The Herald. Further exposure came from in-store publicity in the Pick n Pay stores as well as two inserts on the Expresso breakfast TV show.
The Hampers Against Hunger campaign got off to a flying start when Malcolm Mycroft, Pick n Pay's GM Group Marketing surprised the MD of FoodBank SA, Mohammed Kajee, on the Expresso show. He announcd that Pick n Pay would kick start the campaign with a very generous donation of R150 000. The campaign was also supported by a team within Pick n Pay including Mr Mycroft, Bronwen Rohland, Director Marketing and Sustainability and Andre Nel, Senior Manager Sustainable Development, and by the PR team at Corporate Image.
Pick n Pay's Mark Jennings, Marketing Manager Western Cape, also very graciously volunteered his time and assisted the FoodBank team, a group volunteers and the Radio Kfm ground patrol team in packing and delivering hampers to some of our agencies.
By the time the campaign drew to a close, over R500 000 had been raised. The CEO of Pick n Pay, Nick Badminton, and the MD of The Sunday Times in the Western Cape, Hoosen Kolia, handed over the R500 000 cheque to FoodBank's Mohammed Kajee and Alan Gilbertson on the Express show this month. The amount raised will be enough to enable FoodBank to distribute more than 300 000 meals to hungry South Africans.
In addition to this, the awareness created by the campaign publicity is invaluable to us as it will make our much-needed fundraising efforts just a little easier. (An important point, because Pick n Pay are willing to donate more food to us; we need to find the ways to secure more trucks and drivers so that we can put it to great use.)
On behalf of ourselves and the hungry people we help, all of us at FoodBank extend a huge thank you for this generous support to Pick n Pay, to The Avusa Group and, of course, to the public who rose to the challenge by contributing. To borrow a Pick n Pay tagline: we're "Inspired by You"!
