As a company, Biedronka has always been very committed to supporting many social initiatives, from promoting reading among young people and young talents to being the main sponsor of the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity finale. However, we wanted to have a greater impact and contribution to improving the living conditions of a very special social group: Polish seniors, especially those in difficult situations. By focusing on developing large, long-term and well-thought-out aid programs, we try to introduce positive changes and thus achieve the goal we have set for the Foundation: to contribute to making old age worth living or, in other words, to "living well for a long time." " comments Pedro Soares dos Santos, president of the Jeronimo Martins Group.
How the Biedronka Foundation works
The Biedronka Foundation works to improve the quality of life of older people. It focuses on three main areas – fighting poverty and malnutrition, fighting loneliness among seniors and supporting their health. Additionally, it responds in crisis situations, such as a pandemic or war in Ukraine.
The Foundation implements 18 aid programs. It operates in partnership with local charity organizations (1.6 thousand entities in 2023), thanks to which it has the opportunity to better reach those in need, but also to support smaller entities in their activities.
The Foundation has stable financing provided by Biedronka – this is recorded in its statute and is a distinguishing feature in the NGO sector in Poland. In 2023, it received EUR 20 million from Biedronka, i.e. approximately PLN 94 million, while the average annual revenue of a corporate foundation in Poland is approximately PLN 1.4 million.
The largest programs of the Biedronka Foundation are:
"For everyday shopping" and "Karta Dobra", covering 16,000 seniors who receive shopping cards with a fixed monthly amount (PLN 200) – which helps ease the burden on household budgets and at the same time allows beneficiaries to decide on their own what they need.
"Dish of Common Moments", in which 1,100 rural housewives' groups hold regular meetings at common, lavishly set tables, for up to 40,000 people. seniors so that they do not feel lonely,
Infrastructure projects – construction of hospices, shelters for elderly homeless people, a day care home and equipping hospital geriatric wards with equipment – PLN 22 million has been allocated for this purpose so far.
Programs for refugees from Ukraine – shopping cards, free accommodation and humanitarian transports to Ukraine. So far, the Foundation has allocated almost PLN 70 million for these purposes.
Plans for the future
Among the new programs we are launching this year is a grant program for hospices to support their activities. During the pilot period, we are allocating PLN 3 million for it. We are also strongly developing a program for delivering ready-made meals to seniors who are unable to cook – we have already delivered over 50,000 of them. We also continue to benefit from the energy of over a thousand rural housewives' groups that invite seniors at risk of loneliness to leave home and meet other people. In the case of programs for Ukraine, we will focus on providing assistance to seniors and people with disabilities who have no chance of finding a job and becoming independent. There is still a lot of work ahead of us, comments Katarzyna Scheer, president of the Biedronka Foundation.
