We have worked closely with the Liliane Fund for many years. We formed this relationship because, as a company, we wanted to do something to help the disadvantaged. We were looking for an organisation that provided transparent and focused support: not an anonymous colossus, but an organisation built by committed individuals. We wanted to go further than just making occasional cash donations, important though they are. We wanted to embed cooperation with a support organisation within our own organisation, because we felt it was important to raise awareness of that cooperative relationship among our staff and customers, to encourage support and involvement. We found our partner in the Liliane Fund. We feel comfortable with their direct, personal approach and we work together on individual projects. Our staff and customers have been saving for the Liliane Fund for many years. We include items in our range of Christmas hampers from which part of the sales proceeds is donated to the Liliane Fund.

Sligro Food Group, its employees and customers together raised over €200,000 in 2008 to mark Abel Slippens’ retirement. This money was donated to the Liliane Fund, which used it to fund a series of small-scale projects.

Having worked with the Liliane Fund for many years, we felt an increasing sense of also wanting to support a larger and longer-term project. Based on our criteria, the Fund has since selected a suitable project in Agoita, a village in the West African country of Benin. The funds we have donated have been used to help start building and operating a rehabilitation and reintegration centre for young disabled people. The ultimate objective is for these young people to be able to reintegrate into society and build useful lives for themselves, while the existence of the centre will also have ancillary social and economic benefits in the surrounding area. The fence around the 160-hectare site was built, the first building was erected and a tractor was purchased in 2009. The first peanut crop has been harvested and sheep are already grazing. The construction work was halted for a time in early 2010 by bad weather (heavy rain) and the hospitalisation of the project coordinator Apollinaire Zohoun for surgery. Work recommenced in July 2010, all the planned buildings have been erected and the final stage, installing the roof framework and roof covering, is now in sight. Dormitory 1 and the car park are almost complete, with only the fitting of the corrugated roof remaining. But this is just the start and there is plenty of work still to be done. For example, the other buildings have to be erected and investment in agricultural production equipment, transport and staff training is required.

All in all, this is a very large project, which we at Sligro Food Group will continue to support over the coming years. The aim, once the project has been fully implemented, is for it to be operated on a stand-alone basis by the local people. As well as providing the necessary financial assistance, we are also looking for other ways to support the project by contributing the specific knowledge and materials we have available in food production, logistics and retailing.

www.lilianefonds.org

Because we operate exclusively in the Netherlands, we also want to support a national fund. We have chosen to work with Villa Pardoes, a special holiday resort for children with life-threatening illnesses. Here they can spend a free holiday with their families in one of the eight themed apartments which are specially adapted to the restrictions imposed by their illness. Our choice of Villa Pardoes was based on its national reputation, its impeccable conduct and its broad support within society. Our support of Villa Pardoes is linked to activities in EMTÉ supermarkets and our ‘Plaza food for all’ foodservice franchise format and to Sligro Christmas hampers.

www.villapardoes.nl

Not everyone is able to pamper themselves or treat themselves to a few little luxuries in life. Large groups of people with a chronic illness, such as those confined to a psychiatric institution by their mental condition, cannot do the things they enjoy or the things that make them happy or simply arrange a nice day out for themselves. Far more so than people who are in good health, the chronically ill are often dependent on others for their happiness and feeling of wellbeing.

This is the background to what is known in Dutch as verwenzorg (approximately ‘tender loving care’). It might seem a new concept, but actually it is not. It is even in the Van Dale Dutch dictionary, which defines it as ‘Care of patients, particularly those with a chronic illness, that focuses not only on proper medical care, but also on improving the quality of people’s lives by, for example, giving them personal attention’. Not everyone who is ill has family or friends to make sure they can continue enjoying the nice things in life. TLC is a way in which health care providers and volunteers, as well as Van Hoeckel (our business specialising in the institutional market) and its employees, can make up for this. TLC does not mean buying social responsibility by making a one-off donation. It is really a very simple concept that sets out to provide the little extras in life that can make a chronically ill person happier and enjoy life that little bit more. It can mean having a piece of cake with your coffee, going for a walk together, having a chat, having a bubble bath or maybe a bunch of flowers on the ward.

Van Hoeckel has consciously chosen to provide TLC because it benefits the people who really matter in the health care sector: the patients. For Van Hoeckel, TLC does not just mean supplying products for various projects, but also and most importantly supplying volunteers who are willing to help and communicate the message. In this way we also become directly involved in the wellbeing of our customers’ patients and go beyond simply supplying goods and services to our customers.