A mother works at Yao Embroidery Cooperative of Youxi Town in Ruyuan, South China's Guangdong Province, established by PepsiCo and CWDF in January 2019. "Mom Handworks" is a sustainable public welfare project initiated by CWDF in September 2016. Photo: Courtesy of PepsiCo

 

PepsiCo, one of the world's leading food and beverage companies, was awarded for its contribution to alleviating poverty at the Boao Forum for Entrepreneurs on December 2.

Themed on innovation and high-quality development, the forum opened in South China's Hainan Province on December 1 and brought government officials, economists and entrepreneurs to share their insights to unleash new potential for high-quality economic growth.

More than 1,000 companies from various sectors attended the forum. Among them are emerging and established companies operating in automobiles, heavy industry, fast-moving consumer goods, e-commerce, finance, oil, electricity, environmental protection, healthcare and cultural industries. 

Three major forums and seven sub-forums were held at the two-day conference.

PepsiCo was presented with 2019 Targeted Poverty Alleviation Company award at a sub-forum for the food industry on December 2, for its contribution to poverty alleviation. 

It is not the first time the company has received this honor.

Set up in 2014, the award aims to select outstanding food enterprises based on their engagement in social welfare activities to drive industrial innovation and explore new trends in food industry development. 

The winner is selected based on an online poll and an evaluation by an expert panel. It has been held for six consecutive years and has attracted wide attention in the industry. 

As one of the first multinational corporations that entered Chinese market in the country's reform and opening-up, PepsiCo has achieved outstanding performance in Chinese market, with brands like Pepsi, 7UP, Mirinda, Gatorade and LAY'S becoming household names in China. 

As the same time, PepsiCo has been actively giving back to society. Having won the award multiple years, it has launched and supported a series of social response projects in recent years. 

For more than a decade, the company has supported the Water Cellar for Mothers project which aims at providing clean drinking water for water-stressed areas in central and western regions of China. 

It has also carried out the PepsiCo Nutrition in Action program which aims at improving nutrition care and intake for the poor in the country's western regions. Other projects include the Mothers' Parcel Post and Mom Handworks projects which are dedicated to help the women in impoverished areas. 

In addition to contributing to traditional charity events, PepsiCo has been exploring new charity forms on different platforms. 

In September, PepsiCo launched the first cross-brand public welfare program combining both offline and online activities. 

Titled "Quaker with AI, Get Nutrition Home," the public welfare program has brought together companies and organizations like LAIX, Dada-JD Daojia and China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation to call on compassionate netizens and all sectors of the society to improve the nutritional intake of children in impoverished areas through AI interaction.

The two-week charity event has yielded fruitful results and provided 1,800 students in nine poverty-stricken primary schools in Yunnan, Guizhou, and Gansu provinces with more than 260,000 nutritious meals.