SanLucar: “Social Enterprise prize 2022”.

The multinational SanLucar, a producer and marketer of premium quality fruit and vegetables, has been awarded the Social Enterprise Prize 2022 for its project in Ecuador “Let’s learn together – School support”.

This initiative aims to help children between the ages of 8 and 14 who are having difficulties at school in the canton of Puebloviejo (Ecuador), where SanLucar’s banana production farm is located. At present, 80 children benefit from the project, receiving weekly support classes in subjects such as mathematics, language, and literature.

“At the beginning of the pandemic, we witnessed the inequalities caused by the virtual classes that were taught during the lockdown, which many children could not attend because they did not have a computer and/or internet access. This is how this project was born, and we have continued with it to even out the school deficits also of those children from broken families, or without a lack of a figure who can support them in carrying out their homework”, explains Leonel González, country manager of SanLucar Ecuador.

The Social Enterprise Award has been granted to SanLucar in the double category “Best responsible project for the protection of children in the fruit and vegetable sector” and “Best social action to ensure inclusive education in the fruit and vegetable sector”.

“We would like to extend this award to our partners in the project: the Miguel Suárez Seminario School, an educational institution in Puebloviejo that has the necessary facilities for the development of the project; La Reina de Belleza del Ecuador, who helps us to give visibility to the project through its social networks; as well as the teachers, parents and other collaborators, whose involvement and effort contribute to making this initiative go ahead”, González emphasizes.

The Social Business Prize joins other awards that the fruit and vegetable multinational has received for its corporate responsibility. These include the Business and Sustainability Award given last year in Spain and the Social Progress Award received in Tunisia, among others.

The company, which bases its activity on the business philosophy “Taste in harmony with people and nature”, promotes different social and environmental initiatives in different countries, through its corporate responsibility program DREAMS.