Fundraising fast delivers hope for Africa

23-May-2008

Employees at Warwickshire express delivery giant TNT will be putting off the paninis, boycotting the baguettes and passing on the pastries in a determined effort to raise tens of thousands of pounds for the United Nations' World Food Programme (WFP) next week.

The big-hearted but empty-stomached employees from TNT's depots in the county will be joining colleagues up and down the country in a sponsored fast entitled 'Fasting to Fight Hunger' to generate cash to help malnourished children in Africa.

As well as the sponsored fast, employees will embark on a festival of other fund-raising activities, starting on May 27, to raise awareness of the need to fight global hunger. A mind-boggling array of events from fancy dress days to chest waxing and from swear boxes to placing senior managers in the stocks will be taking place throughout the Bank Holiday week.

More than 60 TNT Express Services depots, customer contact centres and offices will be combining their efforts as part of a specially designed 'Fight Hunger Week.' The initiative is part of an ongoing partnership that has already seen TNT in the UK generate more than £250,000 for the WFP, helping feed and educate thousands of children in Africa.

Fundraising fast delivers hope for Africa

Cash where it matters: The money raised from TNT's Fight Hunger Week will go towards needing children like these in Tanzania, pictured here with TNT Senior Contract Manager Sandra Oswald

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All the funds raised in the UK will go to the WFP's School Feeding Programme in Tanzania.

Stuart Stobie, Divisional Managing Director, TNT Express Services UK, said: "We've done many weird and wonderful things at our depots in the past during Fight Hunger Week, but what could be more appropriate and fitting than to see if our office-based employees can forgo lunch for a fantastic cause.

"It might just bring home - even in a very small way - just how it feels to go without food. Despite there being enough food in the world for every man, woman and child there are still 850 million people around the globe who go hungry every day - it's a preposterous situation and we want to do all we can to help address the issue.

"It costs just 7p-a-day to provide a nourishing meal-a-day and schooling for a child for a year - it's staggering to think that such a small amount of money can have such a massive and positive impact in a young person's life.

"We hope to get all our employees involved, have a really fun week but, most importantly, raise money and the profile of the need to combat world hunger."

The partnership between TNT Express and the WFP was launched five years ago when the company approached the UN Agency after learning the shock fact that a child dies every five seconds from hunger and hunger-related diseases.

In responding to emergencies - such as the aftermath of the Indian Ocean tsunami - TNT can play a vital role based on its expertise in the field of logistics and transportation. TNT and the WFP share the common values of speed, reliability and efficiency and, by teaming up, TNT is committed to sharing its resources in order to make a lifesaving difference to the work of the WFP.

In 2007, more than 760,000 people in 118 countries and 420 locations joined the WFP's symbolic Walk the World event - a series of sponsored walks across the face of the earth in one 24-hour period across 24 different time zones. This annual event across more than100 countries from Argentina to Zambia have registered a Walk already.

TNT Fight Hunger Week culminates with a WFP Walk The World event in Windsor on Sunday June 1, starting at Windsor Great Park at 10am. Thousands are expected to attend the 5km walk and place the focus firmly on the overriding need to put an end to hunger across the world.