World Food Programme
In November 2001, TNT CEO Peter Bakker was reading an article while on a flight to Singapore. It quoted a horrifying statistic: a child dies from hunger every few seconds.
"It also noted that there was enough food in the world for everyone; it's just that we're not getting it to the places where it's needed most," says Bakker." That got me thinking that hunger is essentially a logistics issue on a global scale. It seemed to me that TNT was in a unique position to be able to make a contribution to solving this problem. In our company we have the skills, systems and people that could do something to help." Our partnership with the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), the world's largest humanitarian aid agency, was officially launched on 19 December 2001.
What does the World Food Programme do?
The World Food Programme (WFP) is the food aid branch of the United Nations and the world's largest international food aid organisation. WFP works to eradicate hunger and malnutrition, helping people who are unable to obtain enough food for themselves and their families. WFP operations fight hunger in refugee crises and other emergencies, strives to improve the nutrition of the world's most vulnerable people and promotes self-reliance of poor people and communities. WFP relies entirely on voluntary contributions to operate.
What does TNT do?
TNT supports WFP in several ways, including airlift services in emergencies, specialist support programme, volunteers and cash donations. TNT initiated the annual Walk the World event whereby TNT and WFP employees, families and friends in 200 locations, 70 countries and 24 time zones came together to raise awareness of global hunger. TNT have launched a new mobile initiative, designed to mobilise funds for the WFP by enabling individuals to donate to the humanitarian aid agency. In addition to its mobile fundraising initiative, TNT Post will strive to further encourage employee support and involvement of the partnership by communicating "hands on" volunteering opportunities to staff and other related activities.