1,500 children to receive school supplies with the joint collection campaign of the Hungarian Maltese Charity Service and SPAR

The school supply collection campaign organised by the Hungarian Charity Service of the Order of Malta and SPAR Hungary has closed with great success; the inaugural campaign called “Adni Öröm!” (Joy to Give!) raised an outstanding 57,000 school supply items for children in need with shoppers donating 2.2 million HUF through buying donation cards. SPAR added another 1 million HUF to this amount. The money was spent on school supplies which will be delivered to families in need in the coming days.

“We owe a big thank you to our customers who did not hesitate to support our campaign. I can proudly say that 2.2 million HUF have been raised by the customers of the 33 participating INTERSPAR stores and the SPAR online shop by the 5th of September closing date. Between 25-28 August 2021, the volunteers of the Hungarian Charity Service of the Order of Malta had been collecting school supply donations in the hypermarkets which will be distributed by the colleagues at the charity organisation in the coming days. Our company have matched the donation to the first million to show our commitment and demonstrate how serious we are about our social responsibility. We can make the start of the school year easier for 1,500 children with the help of these donations. We plan to continue this campaign every year in the future as well as extend the number of participating stores,” explained Márk Maczelka, head of communications at SPAR Hungary.

The Hungarian Charity Service of the Order of Malta has been a long-term social strategic partner of SPAR, helping people in need for almost 30 years. One of the most successful and longest standing joint initiative is called “Adni Öröm!” (Joy to Give!). The Christmas charity campaign turns 25 this year and they organised the school supply collection campaign between 21 July and 5 September in 2021. This campaign allowed shoppers of the hypermarkets and the SPAR online shop to buy signed donation cards which they then exchanged for real school supplies. Also, the volunteers of the Hungarian Charity Service of the Order of Malta spent four days in the stores at the end of August collecting school supply donations. As a result of this campaign the organisation collected more than 32,000 notebooks, 18,000 stationary items, 450 pencil cases, 71 school bags and a further 6,000 other creative tools to be delivered to families in need. They also prepare 700 school supply packages from the money they raised with the donation cards.

“We are very glad that we can support 1,500 children to start the school year in September through our school supply collection campaign, with the help of our generous customers and the supermarket chain. The packages will help orphans taken care by the Charity Service, children with foster parents, children living in temporary family homes and children of families in need to have appropriate school supplies to start the school year. We are grateful for the hundreds of volunteers who participated in this campaign all across the country,” said Tamás Romhányi, head of communications at the Hungarian Charity Service of the Order of Malta.

The Joy to Give! collection campaign (featuring the school supply donations this year) has been very successful for many years and motivates many shoppers to help. This has enabled the Hungarian Maltese Charity Service and SPAR Hungary to make the lives of thousands of children and families in need easier, before Christmas and also before school begins. According to the organisers of the campaign it is important that the charitable atmosphere that surrounds Christmas gets extended to other areas and periods during the year and motivates people to do good together.

Images attached to the press release are available in SPAR Médiatár, at the address http://mediatar.spar.hu/.The interface also enables downloading additional public images from SPAR. When using the images, please credit the photos to “spar.hu”.

For more information please contact:

Tamás Romhányi, head of communications

Hungarian Maltese Charity Service

Mobile: +36 30 416 6040 ∙ E-mail: romhanyi.tamas@maltai.hu

Márk Maczelka, head of communications

SPAR Magyarország Kereskedelmi Kft.

Mobile: +36 20 823 7891 ∙ E-mail: maczelka.mark@spar.hu