Fast-food giant starts drive for needy children

Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The assumption may be that fast-food restaurants merely see children as a lucrative market for their products, but at least one is raising funds for disadvantaged children to access basic education and quality books.

In conjunction with World's Children Day on Nov. 20, McDonald's Indonesia has joined its head office's international program to help children -- the third time since 2002.

The restaurants sold stickers and distributed donation boxes to their customers for the benefit of children in need.

McDonald's Indonesia is also allocating 2.5 percent of its revenue from french fries sales from October until December this year for the same purpose.

"We will give the funds from selling french fries and money from the boxes to children through Kompas' Humanity Fund," Rini Wardani, McDonald's Indonesia communication manager, said on Saturday.

"But we will channel the money from the sticker sales, through each of our restaurants," she added.

Most of the money from the stickers, she said, would be donated to school libraries near one of the company's restaurants.

"For example, the store manager of McDonald's restaurant in Cilandak, South Jakarta, will decide which school libraries need a donation," she said.

Rini added that community libraries for children could make a proposal for donations at their nearest McDonald's.

For this year, the company has set a target of Rp 300 million (US$33,000) in donations for the children.

Last year, it amassed Rp 200 million, while in 2002 it collected Rp 150 million for the same cause.

Rini rejected the criticism that McDonald's coaxed children into eating fast food instead of healthier meals, especially through its special menu and toy giveaways.

"Yes, I heard McDonald's in the United States are being criticized for making children addicted to the hamburgers, thereby jeopardizing children's diet. But in Indonesia, our menu has balance to the children's diet. We have high-protein food here," she said.

McDonald's Indonesia has 108 restaurants that employ 6,000 people in 17 cities throughout the archipelago. McDonald's at Sarinah on Jl. M.H. Thamrin in Central Jakarta was the first restaurant opened in Indonesia, in 1991.

Every month the franchise enterprise enjoys an average of three million customers. Families, mostly mothers with their children, are the restaurants' regular customers.

"But recently, non-family customers, such as those who are single, have been on the increase to 45 percent of our total customers from about 30 percent at the beginning," Rini said.