Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, with brand ambassador and eight division boxing champion Manny Pacquiao, fight hunger in the Philippines with a P5.3 million (US$120,000) donation to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). The contribution, raised from the World Hunger Relief campaign conducted by these brands, will support WFP’s school feeding programme in Central Mindanao. The check handover event was recently held at the Owner’s Circle of the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
“We are committed to strengthen our support in helping WFP provide more nutritious food to the school children of Mindanao. Our brands, together with our employees, will continue to raise awareness, volunteerism and funds to fight hunger,” said Teck Huak Lim, Chief Operating Officer of Pizza Hut and Taco Bell Philippines.
“The school feeding programme ensures that school children in Central Mindanao have one less thing to worry about so they can instead focus on their studies. According to our monitoring data, school feeding programmes help increase the retention rate of students in WFP-assisted schools by over 90 percent – a testament to how school feeding helps these children stay in school,” said WFP Philippines Representative and Country Director Praveen Agrawal. “We would like to commend and thank Pizza Hut and Taco Bell for the continued partnership in making sure that hot meals are provided to the children that need it the most.”
Through WFP’s school feeding programme, around 100,000 school children from conflict-affected communities in Mindanao are served hot and nutritious meals during regular school days which has been demonstrated to increase retention and attendance rates of the students. A meal, which consists of rice, mung beans, and vegetable oil, only costs P10.00 per meal for a child.
Yum! Brands’ Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, began their World Hunger Relief campaign in 2007 and have since raised Php 26.9 million (US$600,000) to help feed school children in the Philippines. Globally, the campaign has raised Php 8.1 billion (US$185 million) which has supported the work of WFP and other hunger relief organisations.