Wed Dec 10 08:17:43 UTC 2014
Christmas is the season of giving and this year supermarkets in South Africa’s largest supermarket group is spreading joy with the Santa Shoebox Project and through their gift wrapping services to assist in raising funds for South African charities.
For a nominal donation, Shoprite and Checkers stores’ gift wrapping service will provide extra convenience to customers by wrapping their Christmas gifts from 8 till 24 December and thereby enabling them to raise funds for a good cause. This simple act of kindness makes gifts even more special and adds some festive cheer to the lives of the less fortunate by donating the money to local charities in each store’s vicinity. In-store posters will inform customers where to have presents gift-wrapped and which charities will be supported by the donations. Last year’s festive gift wrapping service in Shoprite, Checkers and Checkers Hyper stores raised over R2.2 million for charities.
In addition, the Checkers chain partnered with the Santa Shoebox Project and launched an innovative way to make a difference this festive season. Checkers assisted Santa Shoebox to allow, for the first time ever, 1000 Virtual Boxes to be donated through their website. This enabled foreign donors and donors from outlying areas who don't live close to any of the Santa Shoebox Drop-Off zones to participate in the Santa Shoebox 2014 campaign by pledging on-line.
Checkers undertook the mammoth task of filling the real Santa Shoeboxes with clothing, necessities and other gifts and sending them off to the Santa Shoebox team to deliver to pupils in six selected schools. What makes Santa Shoebox so unique is that each gift is tailored towards an individually identified child, making the experience much more personal for the donors and children. In total 109,930 festive gifts were delivered to underprivileged children in South Africa and Namibia in 2014 through the Santa Shoebox project.
Shoprite Checkers believes in taking an active, responsible interest in the communities around it. With initiatives like these the supermarket group not only strives towards making Christmas merrier with great value products but also through social upliftment in the communities that support them.
