Beiersdorf Donates over 115million to Lagos Food Bank Initiative

Beiersdorf Nigeria (BDF) has partnered with the Lagos Food Bank Initiative by donating N115 million to mitigate hunger and by providing meals to the less privileged in order to tackle adverse effect of the food insecurity caused by coronavirus pandemic fueled job/ income losses in the country. The donation was part of a Regional partnership with the Global Food Banking Network (GFN) and local Nigerian affiliate – Lagos Food Bank Initiative LFBI) and is carried out under Beiersdorf‘s “Care Beyond Skin” Corporate Social Responsibility initiative. A statement by company said the partnership seeks to impact over 350,000 beneficiaries which includes 4,000 school children in 20 schools per month, vulnerable, expectant mothers, infants, as well as children who are malnourished and living in underserved communities in Lagos state.

The Country Manager, Nigeria at Beiersdorf, Godwin Harrison, said Food banks are powerful interventions which change lives and communities.

He also noted they are an interconnected lifeline to the hungry and equip communities to feed themselves, “we as Beiersdorf recognise the importance of strengthening food banks as it fosters resilience and enhances the community’s capability to fight hunger long term.”

The Founder, Lagos Food Bank Initiative, Michael Sunbola, said the organisation is grateful for the donation from Beiersdorf Nigeria as it enables them to reach more beneficiaries with much needed nutrition at this crucial time.

He said this will enhance its capacity to support food security resilience in COVID-19 emergency and recovery activities in the country. The statement further noted that as part of the 12 month long partnership Beiersdorf and the LFBI would fund the Education Enhancement Intervention for Food Insecure Students (EduFood).

It disclosed that EduFood is a school feeding programme that started in March, 2020 where LFBI provided nutritionally balanced food parcels to 12 primary schools in Lagos and 2,400 school children and their families benefited from it. The statement asserted that another arm of the COVID-19 Community Intervention programme is the 16-month Nutritious Meal Plan Intervention for Vulnerable Mothers and Children (Numeplan) Project that focuses on expecting mothers and infants who are malnourished, vulnerable to malnutrition.

According to the statement: “There is also the family farming programme, designed to create a food and agricultural system that is managed and operated by a family and relies on partnership family labor to increase the quality of life in dignity, equity and reducing the level of hunger and poverty.

“LFBI, through the also aims to build its capacity through an improved service to its existing beneficiary base, increase service scale exponentially by increasing warehouse capacity and locations, cold chain capacity, fleet and human resources.

Globally, Beiersdorf is taking a targeted approach to provide effective and direct support where help is urgently needed.

“Locally, the company is focusing on two areas: financial support for NGOs, production and donation of hand sanitisers to government health care facilities and vulnerable members of the community.

“Food banking works by collecting surplus food from various entities such as farms, grocery retailers, food manufacturers and distributors, restaurants and hospitality organisations as well as government and consumers. Food is collected at foodbanks and is thereafter distributed to community service organisations who deliver onwards to hungry people.”