SPAR shoppers helped 19.500 families in this year’s Joy to Give! campaign

Joy to Give! (Adni Öröm!), the joint donation campaign of the Charity Service of the Hungarian Order of Malta and SPAR Hungary this year made it possible to prepare gift packs from 143 tonnes of food, delivered to 19.500 families before Christmas by the staff of the charity organisation. This year, customer also had to opportunity to send personal greetings to beneficiaries through the www.adniorom.hu website.

In the “Joy to Give!” Christmas food donation campaign, people who donate are an anonymous benefactors to another family whose members they do not know. This year, to make the gift-giving experience a little more personal, donors were able to send a personal message to families in need along with their gift. The Hungarian Maltese Charity and SPAR Hungary have organised the Christmas campaign for the 26th time this year.

“3.000 volunteers have been present at the designated stores from 15 to 20 December, encouraging shoppers to donate non-perishable food items to people in need. Tens of thousands have donated this year, enabling us to collect 143 tonnes of food in donations. Customers at SPAR and INTERSPAR stores, as well as in the SPAR Online shop contributed 7,3 million HUF additionally, through purchasing donation cards personally and online. The donated non-perishable food items and money enabled our colleagues to make 19,5 thousand gift packs this year, which were delivered to families in need before Christmas,” explained Tamás Romhányi, head of communications of the charity organisation.

According to the results of a recent survey on behalf of SPAR Hungary, 78 percent of the population aged 18-65 have donated at least once, and one in three of those surveyed donate regularly. Respondents are most likely to donate to charity around the holiday seasons, and they prefer the personal way: by dropping donations into collection boxes in shops, by giving directly to those in need, by handing over products in shops, or by contacting fundraising organisations personally.

“This is why it is so important that thousands of volunteers of the Hungarian Maltese Charity Service have been deployed in our SPAR and INTERSPAR stores, contributing to the successful collection of the donations. According to the survey, 43% of donors said they can almost see the person they are helping, so they are emotionally affected by donation. That is why this year, our company has also made it possible for shoppers to send a personal message to the recipients along with the food they donate. Our customers could send this message online or by writing it on a giant postcard in our Batthyány Square store in Budapest when making a personal donation,” said Márk Maczelka, head of communications at SPAR Hungary.

The food gift packs were delivered to needy families, elderly people living alone, people living with disabilities or in difficult circumstances, supported by the Hungarian Maltese Charity Service. The donations were delivered by the charity staff on the basis of a pre-prepared list of addresses, and homeless people could receive their gift in day shelters.