The commitment of our volunteers and their stories have a price. The most beautiful are thus awarded in an annual international contest. And each one win €1000 in favor of a charity association or NGO chosen by the winner.
We invite you to discover the 6 award-winning stories of the 2016 Contest that we wanted to share with you.
Discover the stories of Phil and Elric in Canada, Alix in the Philippines, Johan in Belgium, Maria in Brazil, Mary in Mexico and Travis in the U.S.
Good Stories Contest #1: Phil Petit and Elric Nielsen in Canada
Discover the story of Phil Petit and Elric Nielsen of the Sodexo team in Canada: how a simple homemade hot soup can welcome and comfort hundreds of Syrian refugee families arriving in Calgary (Canada).
Civil war in Syria is among the worst humanitarian crises of our time.
"Calgarians" opened their hearts and offered a warm bowl of soup to hundreds of Syrian refugee families trying to start a new life in the cold months of the Canadian winter.
That’s how the project "Soup for Syrian" was born: more than 6 000 bowls of nourishing soup were prepared and distributed by the Sodexo team at Bow Valley College (BVC), led by Elric Nielsen, in partnership with the non-profit organization "Soup Sisters".
790 volunteers helped to offer this homemade soup full of generosity, and collected $ 12 000 to buy the ingredients and supplies.
Phil and Elric have donated their reward to the NGO Soup Sisters - www.soupsisters.org
Good Stories Contest #2: Alix Cretinon in Philippines
Discover, in the Philippines, the story of a meeting and a collaboration between Alix Cretinon and Mary Ann: how this young mother, in a situation of extreme poverty and exclusion, finds her way back to social integration.
The NGO "Life Project 4 Youth" (LP4Y) is dedicated to the social and professional integration of young adults living in poverty and victims of exclusion through training and management of micro-activities. She works with more than 120 partner companies in 8 countries, including Sodexo in the Philippines.
That's how Alix meets Mary Ann. From a large family, Mary Ann lived in the slum area of Manila, and worked from the age of 14 to feed her family. Early mother and untrained, she was selling on the market before knowing LP4Y. Thanks to the partnership between LP4Y and Sodexo, Mary Ann is hired as a financial office worker for a 6 months internship, supervised by Alix, social responsibility officer of Sodexo Philippines.
In a team very involved in their professional integration, Mary Ann proves that it is possible to get out of hunger and poverty, to lead an active life, by training and integrating a company: " Working at Sodexo is a chance for me and my family ... I now know that my children will have a better life. "
Alix has donated her reward to the NGO LP4Y - www.lp4y.org
Good Stories Contest #3 : Mary Cruz Suarez Alvarez in Mexico
Discover the story of Mary Cruz: how a community garden allows to grow and harvest fresh and healthy vegetables to feed disadvantaged children.
The community garden of the foundation "San Pedro Pescador Homeless" in Ciudad del Carmen, in the south-east of Mexico, is another example of solidarity agriculture initiative, based on the principle of education and social usefulness. It was created, as part of Stop Hunger, on the initiative of Mary Cruz Suarez, human resources manager in charge of social responsibility of Sodexo in Mexico (State of Campeche).
San Pedro Pescador Homeless welcomes 24 orphan children. To help them in providing fresh vegetables, Mary Cruz called on the expertise of the Universidad Autonoma del Carmen botanical garden team on the one hand and on the other to 380 donors and volunteers Stop Hunger (Sodexo's employees, their families and friends). The former gave their opinion on the quality of the land, the choice of vegetables to be cultivated, and trained the children in good gardening. The latter financed the purchase of seeds and other materials, and participated in the installation of the community garden.
Today, the small residents of the "San Pedro Pescador Homeless" foundation are having fun cultivating their own vegetable garden where naturally grow tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, onions and coriander.
Mary Cruz has donated her reward to the "San Pedro Pescador Homeless" foundation.
Good Stories Contest #4: Travis Johnson in USA
Discover the story of Travis: how to help disadvantaged young generations to have access to nutritious food ... and to feed themselves in a healthy way.
Sodexo employee for 13 years, Travis is a chef at Tulane University and oversees many other food services in the New Orleans area.
Travis is the "mentor" of the volunteers and is involved in many activities against hunger for young people.
Travis encourages his teams and university students to organize food collections, provide nutritional education courses, give unsold meals and distribute free meals during the summer holidays to disadvantaged young people of the New Orleans through the Sodexo program "Feeding Our Future". So, Travis and his team will provide 12 000 meals this summer.
Beyond food aid, Travis has joined the Educare program. Developed after the Katrina disaster, its goal is to build schools and programs to provide children with better education, including nutrition. Travis teaches 15 disadvantaged children how to eat healthy and where to buy good local food at a low cost.
Travis has donated his reward to Café Reconcile - cafereconcile.org/
Good Stories Contest #5: Maira Nogueira de Paula Eduardo in Brazil
Discover the story of Maira Eduardo and the CRIAM NGO*: how a food collection is a vital aid to face hunger on a daily basis and contributes to the dignity.
Kristina Castro runs the “Centro de Referência Infantil Amigos do Marinho” (CRIAM) NGO, which takes care of 42 children aged from a few months to 15 years, suffering from mental or physical disorders such as autism, with the aim to improve their quality of life.
In May 2016, when the NGO is experiencing significant financial difficulties and electricity is cut off in the establishment, the Stop Hunger Servathon food drive makes it possible to distribute more than 2 tons of food for the young residents of the NGO ... and so encourage both families and the NGO team to keep hope.
Maira has donated her reward to the Centro de Referência Infantil Amigos do Marinho (CRIAM).
Good Stories Contest #6: Johan De Schepper in Belgium
Discover the story of Johan De Schepper, Stop Hunger volunteer for 10 years with the Brussels association "Un Cœur dans la ville": how to offer a moment of joy to hundreds of disadvantaged people on Christmas Eve.
With gifts and a good meal, December 24 is also a party for the most in need. The dinner is prepared by the Sodexo food services team members at one Brussels hospitals, also Stop Hunger volunteers, and supervised by Johan De Schepper: "Every year, hundreds of people are present during the evening. Last year we had 7 volunteers from Sodexo who warmed up the hearts of 600 people and it also warmed my heart. There are so many programs and stories about people in need around the world, I think it's important not to forget the most disadvantaged near us, especially at such a time of year."
Johan has donated his reward to the association "Un Cœur dans la ville".
