IFCO donates environmentally friendly RPCs all over the world
Ever since, IFCO has provided the food banks on a free-of-charge basis with IFCO RPCs for the collection and distribution of food and, in addition, supports the food banks with the voluntary work by IFCO employees and by co-financing refrigerated vans.
Wolfgang Orgeldinger, CEO of the IFCO Systems Group, emphasized that IFCO strongly believes in the food bank activities. He said: “The fact that our products and services can be used by the food banks in an optimal way helps them a lot optimizing their daily work. IFCO therefore concentrates all its social activities on the food banks and globally supports them in all countries where IFCO is active. The food bank system fits very well with our corporate philosophy, and we are happy to contribute.”
Overview of activities where IFCO supported food banks locally in 2016:
IFCO Germany added 16 more food banks to those already supported by the company, which totalled 96 by the end of 2016. The free provision of 16.700 RPCs in the course of the year supports the optimization of food bank processes and clearly contributes to a significant reduction of waste and also cost avoidance for disposal of one way cartons. 4 new refrigerated vans were bought within the framework of the cooperation with the Bundesverband Deutsche Tafel e.V. (Federal Association of German Food Banks) for the co-financing of refrigerated vans.
In Austria, the Viennese food bank was supported with a financial contribution of 1000 Euro in order to help finance the construction of a new food bank building at “Grossmarkt Vienna”. After having built this, Food bank Vienna will be able to support twice as many people in need as of today. Heimo Thaler, Managing Director of IFCO Systems Austria, said: “The ‘Wiener Tafelhaus’ is setting a clear sign against waste – which can be seen equally with our new motto "Let’s protect the things that matter”. It is an honor for us to support such a valuable project. Further to this IFCO Austria also supported an initiative called "Schulapfel“ by donating 300 RPCs.
IFCO UK donated another 4000 RPCs to the Trussell Trust for UK food banks and another 1000 RPCs to Crosscare Dublin for use in their food banks. On July 2nd, IFCO team members (Andy Beeching and Saskia Redway) ran the British 10k race as part of a team of 6 on behalf of First Love Foundation (Tower Hamlets Food bank). https://www.firstlovefoundation.org.uk/news-events/page/3/
IFCO Greece donated 40 crates to the Hellenic Red Cross in order to support them carrying out humanitarian materials in the island of Lesbos during the migration crisis. The president of the Hellenic Red Cross, Dr. Antonios Avgerinos, expressed his sincere gratitude by saying: “Your contribution is a real proof of appreciation for the hard work carried out by our employees and volunteers during the current migration crisis and encourages us to intensify our efforts in order to respond to the growing social challenges of our time”.
IFCO Italy donated 800 Euros to Banco Alimentare (www.bancoalimentare.it) and another 800 Euros to Civil Protection, for the Italian earthquake victims. These donations were made possible also thanks to customers who accepted to receive their Christmas greetings by email instead of printed cards and by not holding a Christmas dinner for the IFCO employees.
IFCO France closed two new contracts with Banque Alimentaire des Bouches du Rhône and Banque Alimentaire des Hautes Pyrénées. These, as with all other already existing food bank contracts, cover the donation of RPCs. Once a year, on the last weekend of November, a national campaign is started by the Banque Alimentaire in big supermarkets with the aim of collecting donated food items that are subsequently distributed to people in need via humanitarian organizations or charities. Last year, the whole team of IFCO France helped to collect food donations in an Intermarché supermarket. Within 2 days, the team collected 2,450 tons, equalling approx. 4,900 meals. Last but not least IFCO France donates, on a yearly basis, 4000 Euros to the Banque Alimentaire de la Loire.
IFCO North America donated 300 RPCs to the Gleaners Food Bank and had 54 volunteers serving a total of 216 hours to support different food banks with their work power. In South America, IFCO Brasil and IFCO Argentina continued their regular support for the local food banks by donating RPCs.
“In view of the widening gap between rich and poor, we are more convinced than ever that the work of the food banks is a very important contribution to support people in need all over the world. In 2017 we will therefore continue our successful cooperation with the food banks”, said Wolfgang Orgeldinger.
For further information:
Hillary Femal
Tel: + 1 813 463 4124
Mob: + 1 813 992 1470
Hillary.Femal@ifco.com