Century Pacific feeds 1.2 M kids

MANILA, Philippines - Using its infrastructure and expertise at creating products that the market wants, big business is now finding ways to solve problems like malnutrition and poverty.

Century Pacific Group, employing the same skill and know-how that allows it to bring brands like Century Tuna, 555 Sardines and Argentina Corned Beef to the market, has embarked on a feeding program that delivered 1.2 million meals nationwide in 2011 alone.

It is a remarkable feat, considering the company initially targeted 300,000 meals to serve disadvantaged children. It raised its target to a million mid-year and then went on to exceed its goals by year’s end.

While corporate social responsibility programs are nothing new, the concept of big business working beyond its bottom line has been given fresh impetus by the Clinton Global Initiative.

Led by former US President Bill Clinton, the Initiative aims to empower global leaders to “forge solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges.”

According to its website, “Traditional approaches to aid are not enough to address the great global challenges of our time. Market-based solutions show incredible promise to solve these daunting problems on a systemic and widespread level.”

Hunger is certainly one such challenge. In a survey late last year, the Social Weather Stations revealed that 4.5 million Filipino families went hungry. Those who experienced “severe hunger” during the last quarter of 2011 rose from 2.5 to 4.7 percent, while hunger rose in families who considered themselves “food-poor,” from 31.1 percent to 38.1 percent.

Thus the Century Pacific Group is expanding its feeding program to incorporate an education component. “(We hope) to grow it in 2012 to include not just meals but tie them to in-school feeding programs because we believe not only in incentivizing those children who otherwise could not come to school but also those who do not perform well in school due to hunger,” the company said in a statement.

Century founder and foundation head Ricardo Po Sr. has also enjoined employees, volunteers and stakeholders to become a part of the solution.

“If a poor boy like myself can make a difference, I am sure that many of our young men and women can eventually make an even bigger difference in our community,” he said.

Century won’t be the last company to respond to the call for help on a scale proportionate to its resources. It will join other local enterprises in finding ways to make big business the future of lasting and meaningful solutions to our nation’s challenges.