Supporting local charities - our volunteering and fundraising commitments
Sodexo is committed to creating social value in the communities we serve. Stop Hunger is a key enabler of our Social Impact Pledge and delivers impact for the most disadvantaged communities where we live, work and play.
Our volunteering policy enables our employees three paid volunteering days each year; individuals have a choice to how they wish to use the days and at least two of them are dedicated to activities related to the Sodexo Stop Hunger Foundation,
Stop Hunger is a Sodexo initiative that has supported over 70 countries around the world in FY23. It was created in 1996 by US Sodexo colleagues who saw children going to school hungry and wanted to find a way to help. Thanks to the financial support of Sodexo, 100% of the donations made to Stop Hunger go directly to financing activities and sustainable solutions for disadvantaged communities to exit food insecurity.
Since 2005 the Stop Hunger Foundation has donated over £4 million to national and local charities tackling food insecurity and its root causes in the UK and Ireland. In addition to money, it also donates time and skills to this cause – also helping to empower women, who represent the biggest opportunity in eliminating hunger.
Stop Hunger activities go beyond supporting food-related projects and spending a day at a food bank; the foundation also offers opportunities that support preventing individuals from needing to rely on emergency food packages and addressing the root causes of food insecurity. These may include mentoring, job-skills, cookery classes, skills-based volunteering and much more.
How we are supporting local communities
Reaching a £1.5m funding milestone
Sodexo and FareShare, the UK’s leading food redistribution charity, share a commitment to fighting food insecurity and food waste. This year we celebrated a milestone with financial support donated from our Stop Hunger Foundation to FareShare reaching an amazing £1.5 million.
Seeing my food safety skills make a difference in Jordan was truly humbling
Julie Wagner is Sodexo’s Head of Food Safety in the UK & Ireland and Global Food Safety Director. In October 2022, she travelled to Jordan with the World Food Programme (WFP) to take part in a skills-based volunteering mission, specifically piloting the food safety checklists that they had been developing together over the previous 12 months.
Great British Beach Clean 2022
In 2022, almost 70 Sodexo colleagues volunteered, delivering over 250 hours to help the MCS’s Beach Clean initiative. The volunteer’s efforts resulted in over 48kg of waste removed from West Kirby, Edinburgh, and Brighton beaches during the cleans. This included 3,061 individual litter items, being picked up and recorded.
Supporting The Bread and Butter Thing
The Bread and Butter Thing makes life more affordable for people on a low income by creating a fair solution. The charity operates through a membership model, whereby members with very little disposable income are offered a deeply discounted food service to help their money go further.
As food insecurity rises, we need a renewed focus on food waste
Food insecurity is a global problem, yet the world wastes a third of its food every year. Our Director of Corporate Responsibility, Claire Atkins Morris, explains the impact of food waste on carbon emissions and how local action can support both communities and the environment
Our key charity partners
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The Trussell Trust
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FareShare
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SSAFA
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Enactus
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The Bread and Butter Thing
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CoFarm
£4 million+
4million+ donated to charities tackling food insecurity and its root causes in the UK and Ireland since 2005