National bread subsidy campaign raised R175 000 for SOS Children’s Villages
Africa’s largest supermarket chain, Shoprite, donated R175 000 to SOS Children’s Villages last week in its continued commitment to assist those in need.
JOHANNESBURG – The Shoprite supermarket chain committed to donate five cents of every loaf of in-house bakery bread sold from January 5 to February 2 to SOS Children’s Villages as part of its national bread subsidy campaign and are thrilled to donate the total of R175 000 raised from selling 3.5 million loaves of bread, to the SOS Children’s Villages.
Living out its promise to continuously look for opportunities to pass savings on to customers and bring them lower prices the Shoprite supermarket chain ran a basic food subsidy campaign during which in-house bakery bread was offered at the subsidised price of R4.99 only.
Each customer who bought a loaf of in-house bakery bread, therefore played a role in giving back to their community, helping children in need by simply buying freshly baked subsidised bakery bread from their closest Shoprite supermarket.
The SOS Children’s Villages South Africa is a private, charitable, social development organisation. They take action for orphaned and abandoned children by building and strengthening families for them to live in and grow up with love, security and respect. The SOS Children’s Village is a home to 6 000 children with eight branches nationwide.
“We are ever so grateful for this gesture. A donation of this amount makes a tremendous difference in the lives of the over 5 500 children in our care at the moment. We aim to be able to look after 10 000 children by 2020 and this donation will go toward much needed operational funds,” says Yvonne Stiglingh, Fund Development and Communications Manager at SOS Children’s Villages.
“Not only do communities in South Africa always benefit from our low prices that make their lives better, but Shoprite also reaches out to communities in which we trade to assist them further. As a brand our key community focus is on the development of women and children in South Africa and partnering with the SOS Children’s villages organisation was a natural fit. This campaign is one of many initiatives we have established to help contribute towards building a better South Africa,” says Neil Schreuder, Shoprite Marketing Director.
Since launching its subsidy campaigns in July 2013, the Shoprite Group as a whole has subsidised 329 tons of sugar, 4.8 million litres of cooking oil, 2.6 million litres of milk, 2 359 tons of maize, almost 1 675 tons of rice and more than 12.2 million loaves of bread. By doing this, the retailer prevented over R1 billion in price increases from reaching its shoppers.
