Fourth Runner-up Miss Universe 2010 Venus Raj is joining WFP and Yum! Brands World Hunger Relief campaign, the world’s largest private sector fundraising effort to help alleviate hunger and under-nutrition.
In the Philippines, more than 165 Pizza Hut and Taco Bell restaurants are raising money during the campaign to help the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) which, in partnership with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the Department of Education (DepEd), provides nutritious meals to 80,000 elementary school students in conflict-affected areas of Central Mindanao.
This renewed partnership was recently launched at the Pizza Hut Restaurant at SM Araneta Center, and attended by WFP Philippines Country Director and Representative, Stephen Anderson, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell Philippines Chief Operating Officer, Lars Peterson, and World Hunger Relief Volunteer Ms. Venus Raj, who was recently appointed as the DWSD Ambassador for Poor Children’s Rights and Welfare.
“We are extremely grateful to Pizza Hut and Taco Bell for their consistently strong engagement and generous commitment over the past five years,” said Anderson. “Their support has made a tremendous difference in the lives of vulnerable children we are assisting by helping to keep them in school and giving them a fighting chance of breaking the cycle of poverty and hunger.”
“Thanks to our customers and employees, we are able to continue our support to WFP Philippines,” said Peterson. “Until the end of the year, for every order of a WFP meal at Taco Bell, we will give 10 Pesos to WFP’s School Feeding Programme. We also have coin banks to accept donations in all our Pizza Hut and Taco Bell restaurants nationwide.
With a donation of 40 pesos or more, we will give our customers a Christmas Postcard featuring Venus Raj as a token of our appreciation. Our Pizza Hut and Taco Bell employees are going all out to help raise awareness and collect for this worthy cause.”
Earlier this year, Pizza Hut turned over 4.5 million pesos to WFP to support its School Feeding Programme in Central Mindanao, which generated about 450,000 meals for the 80,000 school children WFP has been assisting.
Venus Raj grew up in Bato, Camarines Sur, where she led a simple life and relied on scholarships and her own hard work to get ahead. Because she grew up poor, she appreciates the value of giving back and giving hope, especially to the hungry. Venus hopes the Christmas season will further invigorate the spirit of giving among Filipinos to again support the World Hunger Relief campaign. “Sabi nila, ang Pasko ay para sa mga bata. May pagkakataon tayong makatulong sa pamamagitan ng “World Hunger Relief campaign” ng maipadama natin sa mga bata sa Mindanao, ang tunay na diwa ng Pasko,” she said. (“They say that Christmas is for children. We have a chance to prove this by supporting the World Hunger Relief campaign and for us to share with the children of Mindanao the true spirit of Christmas.”)
Now in its fifth year, more than US$46.4 million has been raised globally for WFP through the World Hunger Relief Campaign, making a difference for more than 6.7 million people in 39 countries, including the Philippines. Funds raised through the campaign support WFP’s most urgent hunger needs, especially school meal programmes.
School meals are important as an investment to break the cycle of poverty and hunger, by providing children with the food they need to develop their physical and mental potential, as well as getting an education.
