A Place At The Table

The problem of food waste is as easy to solve, as it is to overlook. The National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has discovered that American consumers waste 40% of food, and the goal of this campaign is two-fold: first, to raise awareness of this issue, and second, to engage consumers with actionable behavioral changes that can help end food waste. So, to truly mobilize people and create collective impact, Sapientrazorfish (??) focused on creating awareness of the problem while infusing small inspirational reminders of actions to take at home.

Humans have rights. Animals have rights. And yet food, which keeps us all alive, has none. Food waste is connected to everything. That single strawberry, or carton of milk, or loaf of bread, when added up with all the other seemingly inconsequential stuff forgotten in the back of the fridge, has a butterfly effect that connects to many other issues, whether they be environmental, economic, or social. Food is alive, it sustains us all, and it deserves to be saved. Our idea is to give food a voice and the platform we created is called SAVE THE FOOD.

The integrated campaign launched on April 20th 2016 and will run for the next three years. The communications hierarchy uses Broadcast TV, Online Film, Digital Banners, pre-roll ads, press, and out-of-home to raise awareness on the issue. All communications drive traffic to savethefood.com, which provides educational information and facts on how to make meaningful change on the issue. Each piece of site content is bite-sized and shareable in social media to further spread our message.

In a single weekend, the film – The Extraudinary Life and Times of Strawberry - received over 9.5 million views on Facebook. The campaign was picked up by high profile publications everywhere — National Geographic, Scientific American, Time Magazine, Fast Company, The Atlantic and more. Celebrity chefs including Tom Colicchio and Mario Batali spread the campaign via their social media channels. The film and print have sparked critical conversation about the issue of food waste all across the United States. At the time of submission, the campaign has generated over 18 million unique mentions and comments.

Watch the film here - https://youtu.be/WREXBUZBrS8

Each year, Performics hosts a Global Community Performance Day when teams from all of our offices in Australia and around the world spend a day giving back to our local communities. This is the one  day of the year when our performance is defined by the help we give to others who need it rather than focused on getting people to buy things.

In Australia, the ZenithOptimedia and Performics Melbourne team partnered with OzHarvest and organised a food drive to bring this theme to reality. OzHarvest are a well-known not-for-profit organization that rescues excess food from restaurants, retailers, food outlets and corporate kitchens that would otherwise be discarded and delivers it to charities that feed the disadvantaged and homeless.

We started spreading awareness about this good cause event to our media partners, clients and to our all employees too. The response to our collection drive from ZO staff and media partners was resounding and our collection boxes kept in the reception area were flooded everyday with contributions. On average we filled up 3-4 boxes full of food items on a daily basis over a fortnight. On the main day, our hard working team of volunteer staff and senior management, packed the items in hampers for collection.

Our efforts were acknowledged by the OzHarvest team who sent us this thank you response.

“Dear ZenithOptimedia, On behalf of OzHarvest we would like to thank you for running your recent food drive to support our organization. Together your employees kindly donated 207kgs of non-perishable items (equivalent of 621 meals) which has been distributed amongst many of our agencies. We were blown away by the quality and quantity of all products included in the bags; they were very much appreciated. Your food helped supplement the nutritional wellbeing, dignity and health of many vulnerable individuals, and enables organizations to reduce their food budget and redirect their funding to education and rehabilitation.”

The food drive result was a fantastic reward for the hard work put in by the core organising team of Ahana Sawant and Hannah Merrigan. Many others contributed by donating food, volunteering their time to pack hampers and getting us collateral created and printed in a short time. This is one of many initiatives we have in the pipeline as part of our CSR program. If you would like to know more about our Global Charity Day or would like to get involved in future please contact us to find out more.

Taking time out of their busy agency lives Leo Burnett Group have been working hard to give back to their local community and those in food need. In the last year alone, they have run three wonderful employee programmes - motivating and educating their employees about SDG 2.

Leo Burnett’s celebrated Leo Burnett’s Anniversary by giving back to those in need. Employees packed an impressive 3,824 meals to be distributed locally through the Greater Chicago Food Depository and an additional 1,920 meals to be distributed around the world through the Children’s Hunger Fund.

Then, again in support of Greater Chicago Food Depository, Leo Burnett Group employees and their families walking alongside 1000s of others in the community take part in Chicago’s largest annual anti-hunger rally to raise funds and awareness to end hunger. The ‘Hunger Walk’ which takes place in Jackson Park and is two miles long supports a network of soup kitchens, pantries, and shelters in Chicago.

And to top it off, Leo Burnett has a matching gift programme where the group have been able to match thousands of dollars in employee donations to non-profit organizations that support hunger relief.

We asked Michelle Mahoney, VP, Director of Community Engagement, about the Group’s efforts to SDG and Zero hunger Michelle said – “We will continue look forward to doing all we can in support of zero hunger. I am extremely proud to be part of the Publicis Groupe family. Ending hunger is a very personal passion of mine”.