Company Name: Mondelez Philippines, Inc
Company Owner: Ashish Pisharodi
Company Address: 8378 Dr. A Santos Avenue Sucat, Paranaque City, Metro Manila, Philippines
Official Contact #: (02) 820-2866
Company Website: ph.mondelezinternational.com/
Company Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mondelezinternational/
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Product/Services: Cookies, Chocolates, Cheese and Spread
Corporate Social Responsibility
Mondelez Philippines Adopts Three New Schools on 53rd Year in the Country
Have you ever heard of the saying that behind every successful man or woman is their supportive partner? The same is true for companies. Behind every thriving company are partners – its people, and the community that supports it. This is the secret to longevity and good business. A Company is only as strong as the people and community that support it.
This is a belief that Mondelez Philippines subscribes to. The Company has confidence that the 53 years it has been present in the Philippines is all due to the hard work of its people, support of its partners, and the patronage of the communities where it is present.
“We are thankful for our 53rd Anniversary in the Philippines,” says Maria Cindy C. Lim, Corporate and Government Affairs Head for Mondelez Philippines. “Our growth as a Company is directly linked to the lives of the people who make and enjoy our products, and the communities we serve. That is why we endeavor to give back to them in ways that matter to show our appreciation.”
Three New Schools to Give Back
One of the ways Mondelez Philippines gives back to consumers is to continue providing its delicious snack products like Tang powdered drink, Eden Cheese, Cheez Whiz spread, Oreo cookies, Toblerone and Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolates.
Another way is by investing in healthy lifestyle community partnerships. Globally, the Company has stated it is on target to meet its multi-year goal to invest $50 million in community partnerships. From 2013 to 2015, it had already invested $39 million (or 78 percent) globally to programs across 13 countries, reaching millions of children and families.
One of these countries is the Philippines and part of this investment is the Joy Schools program. Started in 2013, the Joy Schools program has been adopting public elementary schools with the aim of improving the nutrition of undernourished students. It focuses on providing access to fresh food - critical to well-being of students, through a comprehensive 9-month feeding program. The feeding provides students access to food which they would not otherwise receive in their homes due to issues like poverty and lack of time of their parents.
To date, the Joy Schools program has been able to create joy for six adopted schools; five in Metro Manila and one in Tacloban, Leyte. In celebration of the Company’s 53 years in the country, Mondelez Philippines is adopting three new public elementary schools together with its partner the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP). They are Esteban Abada Elementary in Quezon City, Nangka Elementary in Marikina and La Huerta Elementary in Parañaque.
It Takes a Community to Create Joy
While the Joy Schools is Mondelez Philippines’ way to give back, the Company knows that making it successful also depends on the support of its community. Company employees and other stakeholders play a big part in the success of the program. Last July 29; to gain the trust of the schools and communities, 140 employees participated in activities with the schools to promote nutrition education.
In Esteban Abada Elementary School in Quezon City, employees painted a mural representing the “Pinggang Pinoy” – a guide to ensure students and adults alike are able to eat a balanced meal every day. The recommendation is by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute of the Department of Science and Technology (FNRI-DOST) and mirrors the food that 400 undernourished students receive everyday through the Joy Schools.
“We commend the Joy Schools program and Mondelez Philippines for supporting our “Pinggang Pinoy” education initiative,” adds FNRI-DOST Director Mario V. Capanzana. “We believe through the feeding they do every day and the nutrition education they help provide through their activities, they can contribute to improving the health of the students they have adopted.”
“Thank you Mondelez Philippines,” ends Principal Cecilia Alba of Esteban Abada Elementary School. “We are looking forward to working with you for the wellbeing and future of our students.”
As the story of the Joy Schools program shows, behind every successful company and intervention program is a whole community giving their support. From Mondelez Philippines employees’, to stakeholders like PBSP, FNRI-DOST and school leaders, everyone is committed to the cause. Everyone is committed to being in a community that gives joy to each other.
Beyond Feeding: Mondelez Joy Schools program educates parents in proper nutrition, food budgeting
METRO MANILA, Philippines. -- Do feeding programs work? According to the parents and teachers of public school students under the Mondelez Philippines’ Joy Schools program, the impact goes beyond seeing an undernourished child clean his plate at every meal.
The Challenge of Undernourished Picky Eaters
“What many people may not realize is that not having enough food available on a regular basis is just one problem. There are children, even the undernourished ones, who are extremely picky eaters,” says Jonalyn Vargas, a teacher at Nangka public elementary school in Marikina City. “There are students who will lick their plate clean of every grain of rice but leave every piece of vegetable behind, no matter how tiny. And what is worse, some have parents who instead of encouraging their children to eat vegetables will just skip buying them altogether in the mistaken belief of ‘don’t buy what they don’t eat’ food budgeting.”
Some employees from Mondelez Philippines, manufacturer of Eden cheese and mayonnaise as well as marketer of snack items like Oreo cookies and Tang powdered beverage, couldn’t help but blink twice the first time they volunteered to cook and serve the meals to the feeding program beneficiaries. “I saw kids who look like 4-year-olds who can barely peer over the table to reach for their food. To learn that they were actually 7- or 8-year-old Grade 1 pupils made me realize how malnutrition can impact children’s growth and wellbeing.” said Emy Molina from Mondelez’s Sales department.
Joy Schools, Mondelez Philippines’ flagship corporate social responsibility program, seeks to create joyful centers of learning, empower families to live healthy lifestyles in the short term and in the long run to help improve educational standing to avoid future hunger. Its main program is a 9-month daily feeding of severely undernourished elementary students.
Nanay Rhea’s youngest of seven children is a 7-year-old Joy Schools beneficiary in Marikina City. She saw her daughter transform from a thin fussy eater to a gregarious child who has made it a happy game with her classmates on who can be the first to finish her meals, vegetables included.
Parent-volunteer Cristita Belen from La Huerta elementary school in Paranaque City, said “Many were the times I lost my patience just getting my children to eat right. I witnessed how fussy eaters, having observed their classmates eat everything on their plates, become motivated to be like their peers.”
Lessons in Parenting
Nanay Rhea, however, believes the benefits are not limited to her child. “What I appreciate most about Joy Schools is that I received training I was not able to get elsewhere. I consider myself a good cook, having had some experience operating a small eatery business in the past. But I didn’t know the importance of portion control, particularly when feeding children. Or how to make food more palatable to them, such as making viands with more soup or sauce because I noticed kids are likely to eat more when the food is not so dry.
“Most importantly, the teachers taught me the value of budgeting, like the right way to stretch a fixed food budget, be it for one batch of 50 children for the feeding program or for a family of 9 like mine,” she added.
Joy Schools’ parents also share the teachers’ responsibility of proper financial management. Because a condition of the program mandates that all expenses for the feeding program are liquidated accurately, parent-volunteers learned firsthand how to prepare meals that are nutritionally balanced yet inexpensive enough to feed all 100 beneficiaries per adopted school. “I learned how to make every ingredient count and know where every peso goes,” said Rhea.
Teachers also taught all the parent-volunteers the importance of serving children small portions for their first servings, but with strong encouragement to ask for as many helpings as they can finish. This method not only minimizes food wastage, but also better educates the appetites of the “takaw-mata” (lit. greedy eyes, a tendency to get more food than one can eat). “These are lessons in parenting I would not have known had it not been for the Joy Schools program,” said Rhea.
Shanahan Chua, Corporate & Government Affairs Head of Mondelez Philippines, said, “We believe that for us to grow our impact, we have to help our host communities thrive. Joy Schools is a community program that we are running not just in the Philippines but also across Southeast Asia including the Thailand and Malaysia. Although each country has different nutritional requirements, the principles of the program remain the same: a focus on our global well-being goals of nutrition education, access to fresh food and promotion of active play.”
Launched in 2011, Mondelez Philippines has sponsored feeding programs in 9 public elementary schools in Metro Manila and Leyte. To date, it has directly provided feeding for 2,400 students and indirectly benefited 24,700 students who are part of its adopted schools.
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