Fast-food giant starts drive for needy children
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.