Subway® and Mayani support the call against malnutrition with #SubwayGivesPack

A global brand with a heart for the community. The leadership team of Subway^® Philippines and Mayani’s top management (top left to right: Kin Nonog, Chief Operating Officer; Lance Villanueva, Co-Founder/Chief of Fulfillment; bottom left to right: Jean Gagarino, Territory Manager; JT Solis, Co-Founder/Chief Executive Officer) signing their partnership agreement at Subway^® J12 Anabu II-D in Imus Cavite.

Malnutrition continues to become alarming in the Philippines, especially among marginalized indigenous groups. 30% of Filipino children face chronic malnutrition due to unequal access to nutritious food, resulting in cognitive delays and long-term health consequences.

With a goal to aid in alleviating malnutrition, multi-national restaurant chain Subway^® launched its #SubwayGivesPack campaign in partnership with Mayani, the fastest-growing farm-to-table platform in the Philippines.

Mayani directly sources locally-grown produce and catch from organized smallholder farmers and  fisherfolk across 6 regions in the archipelago, and provides them access to a sustainable market: from retail customers to top supermarket chains, international hotels, and restaurant groups. This partnership will strengthen Subway^®’s commitment to promoting a healthier lifestyle and save hundreds of children from hunger.

The campaign aims to provide Mayani’s Aeta farmers community in Zambales with 200 nutrition packs containing healthy food items, such as fresh vegetables. These will give them better access to proper nutrition and improve their well-being, especially the undernourished children.

“We’re beyond excited to welcome Subway^® into Mayani’s ecosystem of partners. It’s an important milestone for us to co-create change with a global brand and enable Subway^® to localize and deepen its positive impact among communities.” ~JT Solis, the Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Mayani, who led the structuring of the Partnership Deal

Subway^® recently celebrated its 26^th year in the Philippines on the back of a strong reception by the Filipino market for fresher alternatives than the traditional fast-food offers. The campaign started to roll-out already across all Subway stores in the country.

“Subway^® has come a long way since our first franchise, and it continues to expand to multiple areas in the country thanks to the efforts of our Franchisees, Sandwich Artists and our loyal guests.” ~Jean Gagarino, Subway^®’s Territory Manager

Subway^®’s #BetterForYou initiative is not just about giving healthier foods to customers; it also focuses on fostering a better community for Filipinos. And together, we can make a big difference for those in need.

For every bite of Subway^® Favorites Half and Half Footlong subs, you can make children smile and change people’s lives. Let’s always find happiness in helping others. Make the #BetterChoice for a cause today!

 

 

 

About Subway^® Restaurants
As one of the world’s largest quick service restaurant brands, Subway serves freshly made-to-order sandwiches, wraps, salads and bowls to millions of guests, across more than 100 countries in nearly 37,000 restaurants every day. Subway restaurants are owned and operated by Subway franchisees – a network that includes thousands of dedicated entrepreneurs and small business owners – who are committed to delivering the best guest experience possible in their local communities.

Subway^® is a Registered Trademark of Subway IP LLC. © 2023 Subway IP LLC

WalterMart eyes UNLI-Fresh expansion with Mayani, rolls out Palengke Day

Shoppers flock the UNLI-Fresh grocery pavilion of WalterMart and MAYANI as they fill their shopping bags with freshly-harvest produce for only P399

Supermarket chain leader WalterMart is strengthening its shopper relevance and casting a bigger community reach through its various shopping formats this 2023, particularly its flagship innovation UNLI-Fresh 399 with fast-growing agri-fisheries firm MAYANI.

With a retail network of 45 stores spanning the entire Luzon, WalterMart has already institutionalized this anticipated weekend shopping bonanza – which now moves metric tons of harvest per day - by unveiling its provincial and Metro Manila caravans for the first quarter of this year: Cavite, Batangas, and Bulacan for February, then Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, Muntinlupa, and Calabarzon region this March.

Building on this shopping energy is also the roll-out of the first ever "Palengke Day" in WalterMart Muntinlupa this February 17 to 19 which seeks to put a modern take on the concept of "bagsakan" and enable even the nearby "palengke"  vendors to avail of freshly-sourced everyday local products such as onions and eggs, two of the most in-demand staples now given the recent supply challenges.  

“We will provide value to our customers and to our community through: FRESH – commodities of utmost quality, reasonably priced, sourced from our local farmers and cooperatives with our alagang WM personalized service; SAVINGS – everyday savings with competitively-priced merchandise and options for private labels and house brands; and CONVENIENCE – provide complete assortment in a clean, safe, and comfortable one-stop shop with fast transactions both offline and online. Sharing the same vision with MAYANI, we always aim to bring good value products to our customers and provide a better life to our partner farmers.” ~Rose Caalam, General Manager of WalterMart Supermarket

Tracing its beginnings as a small community supermarket in 1992, WalterMart now boasts of over 20,000 competitively-priced items and key consumer-oriented milestones including the mounting of Palengke Fresh with MAYANI during the height of the lockdown, its 5S Safe Shopping Program, and its CallMeWally same-delivery grocery delivery service – all under the aegis of its service campaign of “More to Love at WalterMart.”

“We will continue to innovate our joint offerings with WalterMart while being steadfast in our mission-first approach of strengthening those institutional market linkages for our smallholder growers and producers. Agriculture is a foundational and priority sector for the country, and we are optimistic that with the ecosystem of partners we developed over the years, MAYANI can drive more value for shoppers while creating positive social good across our agri-value chain.” ~Robert Esquillo, Partnerships Manager of MAYANI

WalterMart offers more value to shoppers, pushes team-up with Mayani farmers to the provinces

Provincial consumers can fill their shopping bags with as many fresh fruits and vegetables for only P399 while also helping our Filipino farmers

As the country faces the post-pandemic challenges of rising prices and inflation effects, community supermarket chain WalterMart continue to innovate its retail offering through the UNLI FRESH initiative and activating it in large provinces: Cavite, Batangas, Pampanga, and Bulacan.

Through its collaboration with core trade partner Mayani, the country’s fastest-growing farm-to-table platform with a network of over 139,000 smallholder farmers and fisherfolks, UNFLI FRESH will provide a value-oriented shopping experience to these provincial communities starting with Waltermart Bacoor this August 5 to 7.

“We see this as a pro-active shared step towards making fresh produce and agricultural products more accessible, value-driven, and perhaps most importantly in light of the growing provincial demand, more inclusive to the evolving consumer base beyond the metropolis. With the recent earthquake up in the north and the disruption in the agricultural sector, this undertaking could not have come at a more relevant time.” ~Lance Villanueva, the Co-Founder and Chief of Fulfillment of Mayani

Villanueva also pointed out that this builds on the impact partnership momentum WalterMart and Mayani started after jointly activating their Palengke Fresh and Community Pantry network support projects in 2021. 

WalterMart will elevate the shopping experience through a dedicated UNLI FRESH grocery pavilion while being compliant with its 5S safe shopping program: Screening, Shield, Sanitation, Social distancing, and Service Heart. The said spot will also be festive in terms of fresh options – a wide assortment that the consumers can fill their bags with for only P399.

“I believe there is no better time to let our provincial shoppes enjoy our UNLIFRESH than now. At WalterMart, it is our mission to elevate our customers’ shopping experience. Because of this we want to give all of our shoppers the chance to enjoy the UNLIFRESH activity that we have initially offered in select Manila stores. Not only does it give value, we believe it also adds fun to the whole shopping mission.” ~Len Salita, Vice President for Merchandising and Head of the Fresh Department of WalterMart

Salita adds that Mayani has been a long-time partner of WalterMart and the common values that they share simply defines the success of this endeavor. “We trust that given Mayani’s strong network, we will be able to deliver the real value of having directly sourced fresh fruits and vegetables within our customers’ reach, and the same time extend the much needed market linkage to our partner farmers.” 

Every Friday to Sunday, UNLI FRESH will land in various provincial WalterMart Malls in a caravan style: August 12 to 14 for Tanauan in Batangas, August 19 to 21 for San Fernando in Pampanga, and August 26 to 28 for Sta Maria in Bulacan. 

Social enterprises team up to pay tribute to Moms and cover full spectrum of love

Because a mother’s love is unique, nurturing, and all-encompassing. Bride and Breakfast Founder Janna Simpao on a heartwarming moment with her daughter.

It is that time of the year again when we celebrate the efforts of the very person whose unconditional, unbeatable love binds our families together: our super moms.

To elevate the usual gift options for Mother’s Day, leading farm-to-table platform Mayani.ph collaborates with premium bean-to-bar chocolate maker Auro Chocolate and key social enterprises GAAN and Agrabah by curating special potted flowers and plants collection with names symbolizing the different kinds of motherly love. 

Every gift is composed of farm fresh flowers elegantly nested and arranged in terracotta bowls from GAAN’s artisan pottery community in Pampanga. All are paired with a limited edition Mayani and Auro co-branded Heritage Collection Chocolate Set: 5 chocolate bars from roasted white to premium dark.

Atty. Miscen Desiderio-Dime (Managing Director for Legal Services, Ethics, Compliance, and Regulatory Operations of a large international BPO) gets home and receives a warm hug from her youngest daughter.

Known for its thrust of providing a broader and more stable market for smallholder farmers and fisherfolks, Mayani also works strategically with the likes of the Department of Trade & Industry in expanding its impact footprint across more regions in the Philippines.

“We wanted to come up with customized gifts that not only transcend the conventional considerations for Mother’s Day, but also hone in on our enduring model of creating impact for different stakeholders through partnerships: the cut-flower farmers, cacao growers, and artisan pot makers.” ~Lance Villanueva, the Co-Founder & Chief of Fulfillment of Mayani

Prim Paypon, the Co-Founder and Curator of GAAN, elaborates on the underlying thought and curation process for the collection. 

“For Mother’s Day, we thought of celebrating our mother’s unwavering love and remarkable labor to their children from birth to adulthood. We want to celebrate the loving labor of their hands, from guiding their children to take their first step to creating wonderful meals on their family’s table. For this campaign, we named each flower arrangement from how we recall and cherish our own memories with our life’s first greatest woman.” ~Prim Paypon, the Co-Founder and Curator of GAAN

For this campaign, we named each flower arrangement from how we recall and cherish our own memories with our life’s first greatest woman.

Global publisher Scholastic Asia taps Mayani to extend aid, supports community library for Baseco

The world’s largest children books publisher Scholastic Asia has launched Project Aklat at Pangarap with agriculture marketplace Mayani to provide relief assistance and push community literary among the children of 196 indigent families affected by a massive fire breakout in Barangay 649, Baseco. 

Core to the initiative is utilizing Mayani’s community campaigns expertise and its platform for the online giving of food packs sourced from local farmers, after which free books were donated by Scholastic Asia upon meeting the total target food donations. 

The endeavor also drew the support of volunteer group No One Left Out, outdoor advertiser HDI, and Sto. Nino De Baseco Parish, who led the on-ground relief distribution.

“As Scholastic celebrates its 100 years, it’s in our roadmap to strengthen initiatives that will promote learning and reading. We’re active in partnering with organizations with the same goals as ours when it comes to giving back to the community. Every Filipino child should be able to be given a chance to strengthen their love for learning and eventually live a life that they've built for themselves in the future. We are happy that Mayani sees this eye to eye with us.” ~Jane Tiongco-Aguirre, General Manager for the Philippines of Scholastic Asia

Scholastic is known to be the publisher of the children’s favorites Harry Potter and Clifford the Big Red Dog. They are an active partner of schools in the Philippines in strengthening student reading proficiency through their word class and effective Literacy Program, Prime English and their remarkable numeracy program, Prime Math.

“One of our platform’s broadened use cases is empowering our customers to give back to causes that they personally care about. As an impact-driven organization, we open our platform for a multitude of partners to anchor their social drives on and tap other value points in our ecosystem.” ~JT Solis, the Co-Founder and CEO of Mayani

Over one metric ton of fresh produce and chicken, as well as 500 books and technology-enabled learning materials have been donated via the project. The books have been turned over already to the Baseco children’s community – an effort that will complement their alternative learning programs.

The campaign was also given boosting by Mayani’s billboard collaborator HDI. 

“We truly value education and holds this strong belief of promoting grassroots literacy as a top priorty.” ~Raoul Buencuchillo, HDI Adventures’ President

Pick.A.Roo jons forces with Mayani, doubles down on organic fresh finds

Riding on the wave of an ultra fast-growing Internet economy in the Philippines, the Megaworld-backed lifestyle delivery app Pick.A.Roo creates a formidable team-up with leading agriculture technology platform Mayani in their shared bid of providing on-demand more organic produce at fresher quality to the health-conscious market.

Gonzalez further remarked that they want their customers to discover a new way of eating healthy through a wide range of organic alternatives, as well as a healthy category for customers to purchase from the comfort of their homes.

“We partnered up with Mayani because our goal and initiatives are aligned when it comes to promoting local farmers and offering local organic produce. Our mission is to support local businesses and help expand their e-channels thru our app.” ~Crystabelle Anne Gonzalez, the Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Pick.A.Roo

Mayani, who has developed a grassroots network of over 72,300 smallholder farmers from Batanes to Batangas, is a leader in the farm-to-table space with a wide multi-category agri-assortment, including its core organic produce segment. Backed by Silicon Valley venture firm AgFunder and Asian family conglomerates, it has also secured key partnerships with the likes of the Department of Trade & Industry to bridge rural farmers to the urban market – a feat that includes its last-mile channel collaboration with Pick.A.Roo.

“We are very bullish in our outlook for on-demand fresh finds, especially organic ones. This strategic alliance ups our game even more as we take on that growing need of the market for locally-grown food amidst a fast-lifestyle.” ~Josef Amarra, Mayani’s Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer

The team-up combines these forerunners’ strengths not just of operational capability from harvest to delivery, but also of their extensive marketing channels for special promos bringing delight to the moms, health buffs, home kitchen leaders. A 20% offer is up until November 19 with next-day organic finds delivery available from Mayani via the Pick.A.Roo app.

According to Pick.A.Roo, their November this year boasts of over 1,300 best of the best and most loved food, shop, and grocery brands with over 200,000 SKUs to choose from. They now have the longest delivery coverage covering 21 cities across NCR, Cavite, Batangas, Pampanga and many more.

Caritas Manila taps tech for good platforms Mayani, GrabPay to foster online giving for underprivileged youth

 

(Mayani) Tuloy Aral with Caritas  Manila, Grab, Pilipinas Shell Foundation

In the context of the ongoing pandemic that has brought more families deeper into poverty, digital platforms have been repurposed to leverage their reach and scalable capacities to soften the economic downturn’s impact on the poor and the vulnerable.

Carrying this impact thrust, Caritas Manila – the lead social service ministry of the Catholic Church in the Philippines – is co-launching the Tuloy Aral Project to support the food needs of over 5,000 youth scholars from the poorest communities in the country, while supporting the livelihood of rural smallholder farmers through technology. 

Also spearheading the project is GrabPay, the leading e-wallet of super-app Grab, and Mayani, an impact-driven ag-ecommerce platform with over 28,000 smallholder farmers, including the Pililia farmers of the Pilipinas Shell Foundation, Inc (PSFI).

“For the past 60 years, Caritas Manila has been actively shaping total human development and assisting the needs of the unfortunate members of our society through mission-driven partnerships. This project firmly complements our Youth Servant Leadership & Education Program (YSLEP), while concurrently extending our alleviation outcomes to our local farmers by sourcing the donated food packs from them.” ~Fr. Anton Pascual, Executive Director of Caritas Manila

YSLEP, which covers the children of the displaced workers due to the pandemic, aims to put them through college and technical vocation education, while giving them necessary means and basic support like food as they complete their schooling.

“While technology is the core enabling engine for mobilizing broad online support for Tuloy Aral, its impact components are very social and two-fold: helping farmers at the grassroots and supporting the basic nourishment needs of the youth scholars. We are glad to play a fundamental role in making this happen, especially now when it matters the most.” ~JT Solis and Atty. Ron Dime, the Co-Founders of Mayani, whose farm-to-table play has been revolutionizing the agricultural supply in the country

Mayani, who now powers the fresh produce value chain of the likes of Shell, Robinsons, and Waltermart, among others, is a long-standing partner of GrabPay with the latter serving as it’s e-wallet of choice in the Mayani ag-ecommerce site. Their existing collaborations include the ongoing Online National Food Fair for Cordillera farmers with the backing of the Department of Trade and Industry.

Grab will be signal boosting Tuloy Aral via its mobile app starting this August leading to the Mayani ag-ecommerce site with various curated vegetable, fruit, and rice boxes that the market can choose from and donate. Mayani will reinforce the online traction-building for the project by employing all its digital channels as well as key billboard sites across Metro Manila with HDI Adventures, its ad-tech lead partner.

The fresh produce in each box will then be harvested by farmers in Pililia, Rizal under PSFI’s Integrated Farming Bio-Systems program, consolidated by Mayani, and then delivered to Caritas Manila for eventual distribution.