Expectant mothers, infants to benefit as Beiersdorf donates N115m to Lagos food bank
Beiersdorf ( BDF), manufacturer of Nivea range of products in Nigeria has signed off N115 million to the Lagos Food Bank Initiative as part of efforts to address some of the fallouts of the coronavirus crisis including rising food insecurity and loss of income sources.
The partnership seeks to impact over 350,000 beneficiaries which include 4,000 schoolchildren 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 donation is 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.
The donation is expected to be released in tranches over the next 8 months.
As part of the 12-month long partnership, Beiersdorf and the LFBI will fund the
Education Enhancement Intervention for Food Insecure Students (Edufood), a school feeding program that started in March 2020 where LFBI provided nutritionally balanced food parcels to
12 primary schools in Lagos and 2,400 school children who their families benefited. Another aspect of the COVID-19 community intervention program is the 16-month Nutritious Meal Plan Intervention for Vulnerable Mothers and Children (Numeplan) project which focuses on expectant mothers and infants who are malnourished or vulnerable to malnutrition.
it equally runs a Family Farming Program designed to create a food and agricultural system that is managed and operated by a family and relies on partnership family labour to increase the quality of life and reduce the level of hunger and poverty.
LFBI, through the also aims to build its capacity through improved service to its existing beneficiary base, increase service scale exponentially by increasing warehouse capacity and locations, cold chain capacity, fleet and human resources.
Godwin Harrison, Beiersdorf ’s country manager Nigeria said globally, the firm is taking a targeted approach to provide effective and direct support where help is urgently needed, Harrison said. Locally, the company is focusing on two areas including financial support for NGOS, production and donation of hand sanitizers to government health care facilities and vulnerable members of the community.
“Food banks are powerful interventions which change lives and communities. They are an interconnected.
Lifeline to the hungry and equip communities to feed themselves. We as Beiersdorf recognize the importance of strengthening food banks as it fosters resilience and enhances the community’s capability to fight hunger long term,” he said.
Food banking works by collecting surplus food from various entities such as farms, grocery retailers, food manufacturers and distributors, restaurants and hospitality organizations as well as government and consumers. Food is collected at foodbanks and is thereafter distributed to community service organizations who deliver onwards to hungry people.
Michael Sunbola, Lagos Food Bank Initiative founder, expressing gratitude, said the donation will enhance its capacity to tackle food insecurity, malnutrition, poverty resilience as the country recovers from COVID-19.
He said the initiative started in 2015 has affected about a million families. As of October, it has raised over N111. 8 million and has sourced N261.6 million worth of food.
Beiersdorf Nigeria is a subsidiary of Beiersdorf AG, a German multinational company that manufactures and retails skin & personal care products globally.