Uniting A Global Workforce To Feed Dreams
When it comes to breaking the cycle of poverty and hunger, Tate & Lyle has found the secret ingredient—a nourishing school meal.
In the first campaign of its kind, the global provider of ingredients and food and beverage solutions mobilized members of its workforce of to raise support for the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP)’s school meals program.
The result? The one-month-long campaign raised enough support for WFP to deliver 40,000 school meals to hungry children in countries like India.
Dubbed the “Red Cup Challenge,” the campaign enlisted the passion and generosity of Tate & Lyle employees like Jennifer Walker in Chicago, Lila Xu in Nantong, China and Aleksandra (Ola) Kordianowska in Łódź, Poland and their teams to collect donations from friends, family members and their communities to feed hungry children in need.
On average, it costs WFP just 25 cents to deliver a school meal to a child in need.
“Why the red cups? Well, school meals from WFP come in many forms—including fortified, enriched porridge or a warm soup filled with local ingredients,” Tate & Lyle’s Director of global community relations Jennifer Walker wrote during the campaign.
As the world’s largest provider of school meals, WFP reached 16.4 million children in 60 countries in 2016. For many of these students, a nourishing breakfast, lunch or snack from WFP is the only meal they can rely on. These same meals are often delivered in red plastic cups like the ones Tate & Lyle employees used to collect donations.
School meals help draw more children into the classroom by providing vital nutrition to stay healthy and focused. These nutritious meals also ease the burden of putting food on the table for vulnerable households. Instead of putting children to work, parents are able to keep them in school, thus breaking the cycle of poverty that often traps families for generations.
“By inspiring their employees to give back, Tate & Lyle has improved the lives of 40,000 children in India—ten times the size of the company’s workforce,” says Laura Starr, WFP USA’s director of corporate partnerships.
“This campaign illustrates the incredible power of the private sector to make a difference.”
