The Hungarian Charity Service of The Order of Malta and SPAR Hungary’s cooperation delivers aid to thousands of people in need. The retail chain supports the prominently public benefit organisation with regular aid each month throughout the year, as well as The Joy to Give! charity campaigns.
“As an important actor in the commercial sector, supporting social causes is a vital part of corporate culture for SPAR Hungary. The Hungarian Charity Service of the Order of Malta has been our strategic partner in this for almost 30 years, with whom we can now help not only during the holidays, but in every month of the year through our own donations and with the help of our customers. In addition to this, we try to help in unexpected situations, such as this year’s floods, where we supported those involved in flood control with food donations, including the Hungarian Maltese Charity Service,” explained said Márk Maczelka, head of communications at SPAR Hungary.
“The cooperation between SPAR Hungary and the Hungarian Charity Service of the Order of Malta brings predictability and security to our charitable activities, and our decade-long cooperation provides a stable background for our projects helping people in need. The relationship is multifaceted and much more complex than simply support, as SPAR has been an active participant in our programs from the very beginning to create opportunities for less fortunate people, while also providing valuable and continuous help for the daily work of Maltese Charity Service,” said Tamás Romhányi, head of communication of the Hungarian Charity Service of the Order of Malta.
As part of the strategic partnership, direct daily donations from more than 50 SPAR stores reach the organisation in the form of fruit and vegetables, bakery products, and non-perishable food donations. Last year, SPAR donated over almost half a million kilograms of food withdrawn from sale but still fit for consumption to the Charity Service, which then distributed them to those in need.
The Hungarian Charity Service of the Order of Malta and SPAR Hungary have been organising the Joy to Give! (Adni Öröm!) Christmas fundraiser campaign for 28 years. Volunteers in selected SPAR stores receive non-perishable food and sweets for children bought by customers on site. In recent years, the campaign collected an average of nearly 200 tonnes of food annually, which made it possible to distribute Christmas gifts to tens of thousands of families. For example, donation cards purchased in the SPAR online shop or in stores raised 6.3 million forints last year, while the adomanyozz.hu website received a further 5 million forints in donations, which was also used to purchase more boxes of food to distribute. The Joy to Give! school supply donation campaign which has taken place before the previous four new school years, made it possible for customers to help families in need to start school through a total donation of nearly 250,000 school supplies. In recent years, donors have also purchased donation cards worth nearly 8 million forints, an amount that was used by the NGO to distribute stationery, exercise books, and other school supplies to those in need. SPAR also supported the initiative donating an additional 4 million forints.
The 200- and 500-forint donation cards of the Hungarian Charity Service of the Order of Malta are available in SPAR and INTERSPAR stores and the SPAR online shop throughout the year. The total value of cards purchased since the launch of the initiative has exceeded 70 million forints, which also went to the Charity Service’s programs that create opportunities. In addition, in each SPAR and INTERSPAR store, the company donates 1 forint from the price of every degradable carry bag to the Hungarian Charity Service of the Order of Malta. As a result, the company supported the work of the organization with a further 9.3 million forints in 2023.
The Presence (Jelenlét) programme of the charity organisation is based on permanent and intensive social work in urban slums and impoverished small towns and villages. “Give a man a fish, and he will be hungry again tomorrow; teach him to catch a fish, and he will be richer all his life,” and in this spirit, the Hungarian Charity Service of the Order of Malta launched its social enterprise called Máltai Manufaktúra, which was able to launch and enter the market with the support of SPAR Hungary. Today, these facilities not only provide customers with high-quality products, but also provide a secure livelihood for many disadvantaged families.
In Tiszabura, one of the poorest corners of the country, the Charity Service helps locals in all areas of life: it operates a school, kindergarten, social office and has started a job-creating enterprise, among others. Since 2019, they have been producing their own products, such as canvas shopping bags for SPAR’s nationwide network. In the past five years, the organisation has produced more than 362,000 bags in the Máltai Manufaktúra sewing shop, involving people in difficulty, for whom the program provides training and jobs.
As part of the cooperation, products of the Máltai Manufaktúra such as jams, syrups and pickles were available in SPAR Hungary’s stores. These products not only delivered high-quality artisanal food to customers, but also supported the employment of disadvantaged people in the workshops of the Máltai Manufaktúra in Páty and Gyulaj. The first sales started in December 2019 and the products were available in 20 stores. The sales figures of recent years reflect the success of the program; more than 30,000 products were purchased between 2019 and 2024. SPAR Hungary aims to further strengthen this type of cooperation with the Hungarian Charity Service of the Order of Malta in the future. They plan to expand the range to help these social enterprises become sustainable in the long term.
