2023 Stop Hunger Highlights

As I look back at 2023, I am filled with a deep sense of pride for our remarkable teams who have once again shown phenomenal energy, engagement, resilience and determination across the year. We have increased our societal impact and can be proud of what we have achieved.

It has been another challenging year. Relentless conflict, climate disasters, economic and social disruption have of course deepened poverty and pushed millions more people into food insecurity. And yet, sustaining hope, through action, is more important than ever.

The whole Sodexo Stop Hunger community continues to remain optimistic and united. In this spirit, together, we continue to work tirelessly towards the Sustainable Development Goal 2, Zero Hunger, and commit to building a better, more peaceful world.

We know that by empowering women and younger generations, by educating, training and supporting them, we can help them become financially independent.

We know that we can end hunger by making the transition to sustainable agricultural food systems. We know that a combination of private, public and NGO accountability, resilience, will and funding can contribute to ending food insecurity. And this fuels our hope for the future.

Each one of us plays a part on this pathway, and we thank our engaged volunteers, partners and donors every day for the role they play. It’s not too late. Every day is a new day to hope and move forward. Join the movement.

MOUNA FASSI DAOUDI President, Stop Hunger

Spotlight on our Dedicated Volunteers

Our volunteers play a crucial role in supporting our mission to combat hunger, bringing hope through solidarity.

We recognize and appreciate the contributions made by our volunteers, which foster a sense of community, encourage continued engagement and have a long-lasting impact with our partners.

The time and energy dedicated by our volunteers is inspirational and humbling. Whether it be for the Servathon, Small Acts of Goodness, YEAH! Missions or the Stop Hunger Dinner, our volunteers always bring smiles and enthusiasm to everything they do!

This year’s Servathon engaged 4,800 volunteers across 38 countries – an amazing achievement and an increase on 2022 figures! Well done everyone who took part. Here are just some of the Servathon2023 highlights.

Servathon around the world

In Sweden, three Sodexo team members took on a 12 hour climb to the top of Kebnekaise, Sweden’s highest mountain, to raise over 15,000kr to support their local charity, Stadsmission who were able to distribute over 1,500 meals.

It took us 3 days to travel to Kebnekaise from Stockholm and 12 hours to climb up to the top. It was a real adventure and a physical challenge but we did it for a good cause!

Richard Johansson Team Sweden

In Italy, Sodexo teams in Rome, collaborated with a local theatre company, putting together a show of The Greatest Showman, to engage colleagues and raise funds.

In Brazil, 635 volunteers supported the Servathon, collecting 50 tons of food to support 30 NGOs. An incredible 49,000 people benefited from these efforts.

In China, teams sorted and packed food, distributed food packages and made visits to families in need. As well as all this, they organised an online fundraiser and a photo competition.

56 volunteers got involved to support 4,516 beneficiaires, raising over 50,000 Chinese Yuan and collecting 2,45 tons of food.

Two of the Continental Europe team’s initiatives were in Spain and Poland. In Spain, teams helped the Pan and Peses Association sort food and they organized a paddle game to raise funds, whilst in Poland, the HR COEU team organized a lottery.

In India, to celebrate 75 years of independence, 75 sites got involved in the Servathon, engaging over 500 volunteers from Sodexo, Sanofi, EY, P&G, Saint Gobain, Tetrapak, ASB, Ahura and many other companies.

The incredible, joint effort benefitted over 12,600 beneficiaries, raising 10 tons of food rations and launching an indigenous recipe book.

Click here to watch our 2023 Servathon Video.

38

Show Your Heart, Play Your Part Campaign

In October 2022, European Union annual inflation increased to 10.6%. Our food bank partners raised the alarm. They had less surplus to give, had difficulty in sourcing supplies, were faced with extremely high prices and shortages of certain products.

Our ‘Show your Heart, Play your Part’ campaign was prompt and timely, encouraging the Sodexo community to become active change-makers and have immediate impact by supporting local food banks.

Special thanks to the following nine countries who rolled out the campaign: Canada, Emirates, France, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, UK and US.

Emergency aid

In February of 2023, disaster struck and Türkiye and Syria were hit by a series of earthquakes killing over 50,000 people. Once again, Sodexo and Stop Hunger teams rapidly took action with 32 countries coming together to support a total of 164,000 beneficiaries. Sodexo Türkiye prepared 116,130 free meals with the support of clients and we donated US$ 187,000 directly to partner NGOs: WFP, Tider and Needs Map.

Our Volunteer Awardees

Special mention this year to Monika Bentkowska and Kandice Kalwoda who were recognized at the Stop Hunger Event for their exemplary service and for inspiring others to get involved.

Monika Bentkowska

A member of Sodexo’s Continental Europe Leadership team, Monika was part of the bike troop that completed the astonishing 600km ride from Rotterdam to Paris to raise funds for Stop Hunger’s Servathon.

On top of this, at the start of the conflict in Ukraine, she coordinated aid to Ukrainian refugees in Poland. As HR Director, Monika implemented 3 paid volunteer days for each Sodexo employee who wanted to get involved, when volunteers decided to welcome refugee families or help them find housing, employment or access to meals. This initiative created a solidarity movement in Poland, increasing the number of volunteers from 40 to 114 in one year.

Kandice Kalwoda

Kandice has all the qualities of a model Stop Hunger volunteer: compassion, energy, reliability and a team player. Always available for volunteering, she has been supporting Stop Hunger events since the very day she arrived at Sodexo. She gets involved in every Stop Hunger initiative: volunteering, taking part in sponsored runs and walks and leading sponsored yoga sessions for colleagues. She is an inspiration to all of us!

Stop Hunger is what first made me proud to work at Sodexo. I like the initiative and the fact that we can work while making a difference and collaborating with our colleagues.

HR Director, Continental Europe

Kandice Kalwoda Global L&D Project Manager

YEAH! Missions

Your Engagement Against Hunger

In partnership with the WFP, each year, we send several Sodexo experts on YEAH! Missions. These skills-based volunteering programs allow experts to bring their knowledge and experience to the field. These missions provide incredible experiences benefitting all stakeholders. This year, Sévrine Bethy, Bhagwat Kolte, Tom Pipa, Paul Robert and Julie Wagner participated in field missions to Lebanon, Bangladesh, Moldova and Jordan respectively. These missions focused on FSQ (Food Safety & Quality) risk assessment and renovating and equipping canteens.

Knowing I’ve used my professional expertise in this way is such a fantastic feeling. I’d encourage anyone with a food safety background – or any expertise at all – to look around and see where you can help. Food safety saves lives, and volunteering has made me more committed than ever.

A humanly and technically enriching experience because of the technology gap between Moldova and France. The feeling of being useful, working for a human cause with no profit at stake. Sometimes living more simply doesn't necessarily make us less happy; you can do a lot with nothing.

Julie Wagner Global Food Safety Director

Tom Pipa Technical Project Manager

Sévrine Bethy Tom Pipa Paul Robert Stop Hunger Dinner 2023

The Power of Partnerships

Stop Hunger is proud to have 336 NGO partners across 73 countries. We believe that through these collaborations, where we share resources, expertise and funding, we are able to have a deeper and longer lasting impact to contribute in saving and changing lives to work towards our goal of reaching SDG2, Zero Hunger.

In 2023, we renewed our aliances with two major partners, World Food Programme (WFP) and French Federation of Food Banks (FFBA).

WFP is the world's largest humanitarian organization, helping to feed around 100 million people in more than 80 countries each year. Its international network and its proximity to other United Nations bodies make it a partner of choice for Stop Hunger. Since 2014, Stop Hunger has donated over $11.6m to the WFP. Over the past decade, we have worked together to:

Economically empower women along WFP’s home-grown school feeding value chain.

Ensure safety and quality of WFP school meals.

FFBA welcome more than 2.4 million people through their 6,000 associations, Centre Communal d'Action (CCAS) and partner social grocery stores.

Together, FFBA, Stop Hunger and Sodexo's primary focus is to prevent food waste while encouraging donations of unsold surplus food in France. Today, ProxiDon, a unique application linking donor sites and Food Bank partner associations, facilitates local donations.

Use digital tools and innovation to increase school feeding quality, efficiency and reach.

Raise funds for WFP’s emergency response.

Bruno Vaquette Chairman and CEO of Sodexo France

In a context where precariousness and food insecurity have increased significantly, we were keen, as a leading player in the collective catering sector, to continue to provide our support.

Projects & Initiatives

In the fight against food insecurity, Stop Hunger leads advocacy initiatives and concrete empowerment projects to help empower vulnerable communities.

As a cornerstone of our commitment since 2017, women empowerment remains a Stop Hunger pillar. We firmly believe that women constitute a highly effective catalyst in lifting their families and communities out of food insecurity. Every year, during our Stop Hunger dinner, we take immense pride in acknowledging and celebrating the contributions of women change-makers who serve as inspiring leaders, paving the way for others to follow. On the next pages, you will find our four 2023 women awardees. We hope their stories inspire you as much as they impressed us.

Together, we know we can go even further. And that’s why advocacy plays a significant role in our mission. To bring about change, we must increase awareness and foster solidarity. And to achieve this, we feel it's important to release regular white paper publications, directed at our broader audience, to raise visibility and motivate active participation in the fight against hunger.

White paper

In 2023, in collaboration with the Agency Brunswick, we wrote the white paper, “Food Insecurity: the urgent need for a paradigm shift”.

Written at the request of many Stop Hunger community members, the paper was intended to provide an official document which offered context to our work, give up-to-date figures on today’s unprecedented food crisis, raise awareness and support ambassadors who often need to answer questions about Stop Hunger.

Stop Hunger white papers are not designed to be all-encompassing or complete as we update our publications on various topics (such as women empowerment and food insecurity) as the food insecurity environment changes. However, we feel it is important to keep our network informed of the hunger situation as it evolves. These papers emphasize just how imperative our work is and why Sodexo continues to reinforce and encourage our actions.

Click here to read our white paper.

Projects to Empower Women

Africa's battle against rural poverty demands a paradigm shift. We must pivot from an exclusive focus on income increase and traditional agriculture to a multi-layered approach that integrates economic diversification, technological innovation and land reform.

USTAWI HUBS AFRICA, KENYA

Doreen Irungu

Born in Nyeri County, in the rural areas of Kenya, Doreen saw her parents, coffee producers, make sacrifices to support her and her siblings. With a degree in community and social development, Doreen worked with various associations to support vulnerable women and girls and set up Ustawi Afrika to empower women.

Today, with Stop Hunger support, Ustawi Afrika offers essential tools, knowledge and opportunities for rural women in agriculture to prosper and become economically independent. Ustawi Afrika has led over 200 sustainable projects and reached over 10,000 women to help rural women become active agents of climate change.

Doreen Irungu Founder, Ustawi Africa

How can we contribute directly and indirectly to the integration of these women into the labor market, and get them out of the cycle of violence and hunger?

By educating and mentoring!

Michelle Caetano Project Coordinator, Grajau

INSTITUTO ANCHIETA GRAJAU, BRAZIL Michelle Caetano

Michelle has 19 years' experience working in social organizations providing care and training for socially vulnerable children, adolescents and adults. With the support of Stop Hunger and Electrolux, Instituto Anchieta Grajau empowers women by providing culinary training to help those in vulnerable situations gain skills as kitchen helpers or chefs, with many opening their own businesses. Also, thanks to this partnership, the center's kitchen has been completely refurbished to help these women feed more than 1,000 children each week.

I love that Stop Hunger helps women become more self-sufficient, able to break cycles of poverty for their own families. That’s really going to make a difference with food insecurity. We want to keep empowering and investing in women.

Stephanie Wright Co-Founder, Together We Bake

TOGETHER WE BAKE, USA

Stephanie Wright

In 2011 Stephanie co-built this association with a heart, forming a group of sisters who understand and support each other in times of isolation, hardship and uncertainty. By helping women master skills in commercial food production, food safety and business administration, the Together We Bake (TWB) Program is designed to help vulnerable women who have suffered from violence or addiction, are unemployed or recently spent time in prison, by training them to bake and run a small business and become economically independent. With Stop Hunger support, TWB has also been able to provide a post-program network for TWB alumni, to maintain personal connections and give continued assistance.

Together, we can change the lives of these young people. With a lot of humility and aware of the difficulties, we can all play a part in changing the lives of young people.

Laure Delaporte Co-Founder, Life Project 4 Youth

LIFE PROJECT 4 YOUTH, PHILIPPINES

Laure Delaporte

Whilst travelling, Laure and her family encountered homeless children who had no family and had to fend for themselves. Upset to witness this and with 25 years of business experience, Laure and her husband decided to devote the rest of their lives to the professional and social integration of young people from extreme poverty and exclusion. Life Project 4 Youth Alliance (LP4Y) was born - a federation of 17 organizations in 14 countries, with the mission to develop innovative solutions for the professional and social inclusion of young people suffering from extreme poverty. In partnership with Stop Hunger and other organisations, LP4Y offers training programs to help young women acquire skills to integrate the business world.

Women for Zero Hunger Program

In 2023, we also launched our signature program, Women for Zero Hunger, in collaboration with Women in Africa. This program supports projects that contribute to the sustainable fight against hunger and food insecurity, through the empowerment of women and a focus on food transition to combine societal and environmental impact.

Three finalist associations were chosen to receive financial support and a tailor-made mentoring program from Sodexo and Pluxee senior leaders, to develop their network and impact.

Women Smiles Uganda, led by Lilian Nakigozi, was chosen as the jury's winner and has been invited to the annual Stop Hunger event on April 24, 2024. They will have the opportunity to raise additional funds through crowdfunding. Their innovative vertical farming methods enable fresh produce to be grown all year round, regardless of weather conditions.

The two runners up, ChildVoice and FarmSahel were extremely close contenders. ChildVoice, headed by Conrad Mandsager, helps young women refugees in Uganda and Nigeria to rebuild their lives, by training them in farming and selling their produce. FarmSahel, headed by Madjalia Seynou, works to empower women from rural communities in Burkina Faso, introducing them to permaculture and helping them achieve economic independence.

Thank you to their three mentors, Antoine Benech, François Blanckaert and Isabelle Hannedouche for their investment and time in this pilot program.

Co-Founder, Women Smiles Uganda

Women Smiles Uganda,

73

57 Women empowerment projects

21,000 Volunteers

336 NGO partners

$

THANK YOU TO OUR 2023 DONORS, PARTNERS, VOLUNTEERS AND FRIENDS FOR CONTRIBUTING TO OUR FIGHT AGAINST HUNGER AND FOOD INSECURITY.

THESE ACHIEVEMENTS ARE THANKS TO YOU!

Accenture • Accuracy • Adecco • Aentario - KPC • Aliotts • Alight Solutions (formerly Arinso France) • Ardo

Argon & Co • Artefact - Data Consulting • Avaluance • Banco Santander SA • Bel • BNP Paribas • Bonduelle

Cafes Richard • Castel Freres • Champagne Mailly • Charles et Alice • Charraire • Chomette • Citi • Clostera

Coca Cola - CCEPDirect Ocean • Domaine Chapelle de Blagny • Epam Systems France • Feldt’s Fisk & Skaldjur AB

Ferme Du Pre Fjord Import • France Boissons • Gaston Mille - Mille SAS • Globe Williams International

Goldman Sachs• Groupe Cercle Vert • Groupe PLG • Groupe Services France • Havas Events • HP • HSBC • ING

Jacobs Douwe Egberts • Johnson Controls • Kolmi Hopen • Konica Minolta • Lactalis • La Passerelle

La Seine Musicale • Lofbergs Lunor • Maison Lenôtre • Mckinsey • Mercer France • Metsys • Micropole • Miko Cafe

Service NTT France • Nomios Nutripack - Impact Gr • Oliver Wyman • Options • Oxford Global Resources

Petit Forestier Location • Rak Porcelain Europe SA • Red Bull • Rentokil Initial • Rescaset Concept SAS • Salesforce

Salade 2 Fruits • SAS Bernard - Groupe Jean Floc’h • SAS Guillet - LDC • SAS Viandes • Shoes for Crews Europe

Socodis • Sodiaal - Entremont Alliance • Stibo Systems SAS • Sysco France • UCC Coffee • Unilever • Vivalya

Vodafone • Wells Fargo • Yoplait • 2Pace SAS

To learn more about Stop Hunger, visit www.stop-hunger.org

and connect with us on social media