4 years, 850 000 meals packed, 3 120 children fed
Since its partnership with Rise Against Hunger in 2016, Liberty’s employees have united and dedicated 67 minutes to pack food parcels on International Nelson Mandela Day. The food parcels are distributed to underprivileged Early Childhood Development Centres across the country.
This year, Liberty employees from Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Pretoria collaborated in teams and successfully packed 250 000 meals that will feed 780 children for an entire year. This brings the total number of food parcels packed over the last 4 years to 850 000, feeding 3120 children.
Tracey Unser, Divisional Executive: Corporate Citizenship at Liberty says, “In an inspiring show of team spirit and a passion for doing good, hundreds of Liberty employees, including our executive team, rolled up their sleeves to embrace this initiative. We would not have achieved this success without their commitment, and collectively, we managed to heed the call of helping to alleviate hunger in South Africa.”
The food parcels are critical to improving the nutrition of children in these Centres. It helps them to achieve better learning outcomes, which in turn improves their future prospects. Liberty supports Nelson Mandela’s belief that education is a powerful weapon that we can use to change the world.
It is important that learners receive support as soon as they start school all the way to their tertiary education level. Liberty’s Corporate Social Investment strategy places a strong focus on education -offering support from cradle to career will ensure that children are given all the opportunities to become successful members of society.
“At Liberty we are passionate about education because it’s the bedrock of achieving a sustainable future for our country. In addition to Mandela Day, this year close to 5,000 pairs of shoes were donated to learners in nearly 30 schools. With so many families not being able to afford shoes for their children, we’re so proud that our employees heeded the call to improve lives… one shoe at a time.”
Liberty pioneered the Maths and Science Learning Channel by making Maths and Science accessible outside of the classroom, on television. The show was hosted by Professor William Smith, who was recently honoured with the order of the Baobab by President Cyril Ramaphosa, for his excellent contribution to the teaching and demystification of Maths and Science.
Unser says, “Our investment in Maths and Science helps us honour our commitment in contributing to the broader sustainable development goals. It helps us to address socio-economic issues in the country from cradle stage where the opportunity exists to lay a solid foundation of growth.”
Liberty continues to make Maths and Science accessible outside of the classroom. A recent innovation is Liberty’s partnership with Mindset Network which offers free multi-format extra lessons and curriculum support on mobile devices via the Tenfold Education App.
“Long-term, sustainable value growth can only be achieved through the development and success of the communities in which we operate. This notion is premised on our belief that an organisation cannot thrive in a failing society, and as a result our entire Liberty community has a part to play in building and sustaining the kind of society we all wish to live in” concludes Unser.
