Servathon 2010 - 39,000 Sodexo employees took part in the Servathon 2010

(3BLMedia/theCSRfeed) Issy-les-Moulineaux - July 21, 2010 -  Sodexo announced that more than 39,000 Sodexo employees in 28 countries took part in its annual Servathon to fight hunger and malnutrition this spring.  The company-organized initiative was created in 1997 as a way to engage employees in hunger relief efforts in their local communities.  Efforts included serving food, fundraising, food drives, and holding free nutrition and food safety workshops at hunger relief organizations.  The Servathon is part of Sodexo's global STOP Hunger program, initiated by Sodexo CEO Michel Landel in the U.S. in 1996.

  This year, employees from 10 additional Sodexo countries joined thousands of their colleagues to provide help to those in need.  Globally, the Servathon 2010 saw Sodexo employees collect over 175,000 kilos of food, 50% more than last year, and engage their clients, customers, vendors, and community members in the fight against hunger.    Michel Landel, CEO and President of Sodexo's STOP Hunger Association, said, "I am proud of our employees' commitment to the fight against hunger and malnutrition and very pleased to see the ever-growing number of employees who respond each year to our call for involvement.  Servathon and our overall STOP Hunger initiative are tangible expressions of Sodexo's values and founding principles in action."

• Among the Servathon 2010 initiatives: 
  In Mexico, donations from 7,200 employees enabled the contribution of five tons of much needed and requested seeds and grains to seven food banks in nine states.

• In Austria, coin collections took place in all restaurants and staff offices, teams volunteered at their local hunger relief organizations.

• In China, employees volunteered at a local food bank and teams collected nearly 2,000 products for the disadvantaged.

• In the U.S., thousands of employees participated in Servathon activities including, on one site, the repackaging of more than 4,000 kilos of food for distribution as nearly 8,000 meals.

• In Thailand, 200 Sodexo and client employees organized a special dinner for 1,800 orphaned children.  The employees also re-painted and re-outfitted the orphanage, providing cooking utensils, ceiling fans and air compressors.

• In France, at Sodexo Group HQ, employees collected 8,000 kilos of food from employees and vendors for distribution to social groceries and to NGOs implemented locally.

More than one billion people - one in six people on the planet - suffer from hunger.  Sodexo is continuously increasing its efforts to combat hunger and malnutrition and has committed to extending the STOP Hunger initiative into every one of the 80 countries where it operates by 2020. Last year, employees in 29 countries   participated in STOP Hunger, which focuses on four major areas: volunteering, financial and food donations, and providing Sodexo expertise in nutrition and food safety.  During 2009 more than 360 major STOP Hunger initiatives were conducted in partnership with 237 NGOs, associations and charities.  

About Sodexo
Quality of Life plays an important role in the progress of individuals and the performance of organizations. Based on this conviction, Sodexo acts as the strategic partner for companies and institutions that place a premium on performance and employee well-being, as it has since Pierre Bellon founded the company in 1966. Sharing the same passion for service, Sodexo's 380,000 employees in 80 countries design, manage and deliver an unrivaled array of On-site Service Solutions and Motivation Solutions. Sodexo has created a new form of service business that contributes to the fulfillment of its employees and the economic, social and environmental development of the communities, regions and countries in which it operates.

SODEXO7993