Vietnam Soya Products Joint Stock Company (Vinasoy), the country’s biggest soymilk producer, has over the years lent a helping hand to students, especially those in poverty-stricken areas, by pledging to improve their nutrition. Each year, close to one million packets of soymilk are handed to young students, especially those being children of poor families in various remote areas across the country.
The company’s program to donate milk to students was initiated in December 2015, when Quang Ngai Sugar Joint Stock Company, Vinasoy’s parent company, launched the Vietnam Soymilk Study Motivation Foundation as a non-profit organization to mobilize resources to improve the health of school children as a way to promote educational development. Ever since, Vinasoy has gradually expanded the program to benefit more students, with an aim to contribute to the country’s campaign to reduce malnutrition among children.
Strong commitment to students’ nutrition
Over the past seven years since early 2016, the Vietnam Soymilk Study Motivation Foundation has donated over 12.3 million packets of soymilk branded Fami worth more than VND44 billion to over 850,000 primary and junior high school students at 1,519 schools in 19 provinces and cities in the country.
In 2022 in particular, from mobilized resources as well as direct contribution from Vinasoy, the foundation donated 928,000 soy milk packets of Fami, Fami Canxi and Fami Kid brands worth more than VND4 billion to young students in eight poverty-stricken provinces, including Yen Bai, Lai Chau and Lao Cai in the northern upland region and Vinh Long, Tra Vinh and Soc Trang in the Mekong Delta. These provinces are known to have a high proportion of poor people, and as such, the milk donation will help add more nutrients for students, improve their physical conditions and encourage them to study better, said a representative of the company.
Soymilk is a healthy, plant-based product said to have the percentage of protein equivalent to that of milk from animals, in addition to a variety of nutrients such as calcium, vitamin K and more than 20 other vitamins that are essential for daily growth of children, according to Vinasoy, which currently operates three factories in Quang Ngai, Bac Ninh and Binh Duong provinces with a combined capacity of 390 million liters of products a year.
Given the positive impact of the milk donation program, Vinasoy has pledged more funding for the foundation to scale up its operation.
In December 2022, on the occasion of Vinasoy’s 25th birthday, the company announced to donate VND25 billion to the foundation, which a representative said is a word of gratitude to the community. This sizable donation will allow the Vietnam Soymilk Study Motivation Foundation to expand its nutrition program for more students in the coming years.
“The foundation via the milk donation program wishes to share the burden with poor families in ensuring sufficient daily milk intake for their children, and to raise the public awareness on the importance of milk for the development of the young generation,” said the representative.
Other community activities
Apart from donating milk to students via its study promotion foundation, Vinasoy has also organized many other community programs to support poor people. Since early June this year, the company’s Fami brand has joined a community program named Chuyen Xe Nhan Ai to provide financial support for poor families in the Mekong Delta.
The Chuyen Xe Nhan Ai program was initiated in Vinh Long Province in 2011 by the provincial Vinh Long Television with an aim to provide financial assistance for poor people to start up their household businesses or to improve their livelihoods. Numerous organizations have accompanied this program, which has now been expanded to all provinces in the Mekong Delta.
This year, Vinasoy is the main sponsor of the program, which will support around 60 families with between VND21 million and VND53 million each to help them escape poverty and set up micro businesses. Each of the beneficiaries is also donated Fami soy milk for one year’s consumption.
The Fami brand will also donate VND1.35 billion worth of soymilk to poor families in the Mekong Delta.
