OREANDA-NEWS. October 16, 2015. In the run-up to World Food Day, the Carrefour Foundation is launching its third international food collection campaign with support from the European Food Bank Federation and The Global FoodBanking Network. Teams from some 2000 stores will be involved in the project which will run for nearly 2 months across 10 countries: Taiwan, then Romania, France, Spain, Italy,  Argentina, China, Poland, Brazil and finally Belgium. Employees, customers and volunteers will all be drawing on their resources and focusing on helping the world's poorest people. Their target will be to beat last year's result – the equivalent of 42 million meals donated and then redistributed to local branches of Food Banks.

From Taipei to Sao Paulo – nearly 2000 Carrefour stores are getting involved in 10 different countries

The collection will commence in Carrefour Taiwan on World Food Day, and will run until December. Collections will then get under way in Romania on 23 November, with France, Italy, Argentina and China following suite on 27 and 28 November. The campaign will then run in Carrefour Poland from 4 to 6 December, before Carrefour Brazil on 5 December and then Carrefour Belgium from 11 to 13 December.

In stores, several hundred volunteer Carrefour employees will be working out in the field, lending their support to Food Bank workers and helping to raise customers' awareness, as well as receiving and sorting the various products donated. The foodstuffs collected at store checkouts will then be redirected to Food Bank warehouses for redistribution to various associations set up to help people in need.

In addition to this campaign, food is being donated from stores every day – the equivalent of 89 million meals donated and then redistributed to food aid organisations throughout the world.
 
Carrefour has been a partner of the Food Banks every day since 1994. Indeed, alongside these collection campaigns, Carrefour also donates foodstuffs to various associations on a daily basis – fresh products in France in particular, as well as in Belgium, Brazil, Argentina, etc. The equivalent of 89 million meals was distributed in 2014 throughout the world, making Carrefour the leading private donor to Food Banks in France.

Giving effectively: logistics support and a skills sponsorship programme

The Carrefour Foundation also provides the Food Banks with logistics support: it cofinances vehicles for transporting products – including fresh goods – and cold rooms for storing them. In 2015, a donation of €209,000 contributed to the purchase of 11 vehicles and 5 cold rooms in France. Since 1994, Carrefour has funded the purchase of 215 facilities for the Food Banks throughout the world. These include153 refrigerated vehicles, 31 cold rooms and cold cabinets.

The retailer also draws on its core business, sharing its logistics expertise: Carrefour France's Supply Chain Division works alongside teams from the Food Banks through a skills sponsorship programme. The aim is to optimise the way in which warehouses are managed and orders prepared.