Projects and Promotions

The REWE Group has been committed to supporting people in need in Ukraine since mid-March 2022. It has raised a total of around 2 million euros in donations. For example, the company gave 1 million euros in support of the German Red Cross to benefit Ukraine. Furthermore, the company gave donations in kind worth around 960,000 euros in the reporting period. The REWE Group also responded to an appeal by the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) with a donation of just under 1,000 tonnes of food and hygiene items. In addition, large quantities of donations in kind from REWE and PENNY stores in Germany were taken to the Poland-Ukraine border. The REWE Group national companies in Eastern Europe took over the majority of the primary care provided by the company. A platform was also set up to enable employees to get involved in the fundraising campaign. Many stores offered the option of donating deposits and the retailers helped local organisations. REWE in Germany also supported food banks that were struggling due to the war in Ukraine and inflation, by donating vouchers (see also section Supporting the Food Banks).

Lekkerland also played an active role in supporting Ukraine. The sales line has repeatedly donated goods from several logistics centres to aid organisations since March 2022. Recipients have included the food bank organisation “Meerbusch hilft”, the Blue and Yellow Cross Ukrainian Organisation “Blau-Gelbe Kreuz” from Cologne and the St. John Ambulance Regional Association “Johanniter Regionalverband” Harz-Heide.

toom Baumarkt DIY Stores donated items such as batteries, camp-beds and work gloves worth around 100,000 euros as part of a project with the Blue and Yellow Cross German-Ukrainian Association “Blau-Gelbes Kreuz Deutsch-Ukrainischer Verein e. V.”.

In the reporting year, DER Touristik supported the industry-wide initiative #touristikhilft with relief operations for Ukraine, including on-going events and networking events. Furthermore, the sales line helped to build a website for the initiative that from March to August 2022 was able to provide information for people who had fled Ukraine.

With the sales lines REWE and PENNY in Germany, Lekkerland, nahkauf and REWE Dortmund, the REWE Group has been one of the main supporters of the more than 960 local food banks across Germany since 1996 – and has sponsored numerous events by food bank organisation Tafel Deutschland e. V. over many years.

The campaign “Filling Plates Together!” (“Gemeinsam Teller füllen!”), which was established in 2009, took place in the reporting year: REWE and nahkauf stores in Germany, as well as the REWE online shop, appealed to customers to buy bags of donations. The bags are full of non-perishable foods such as rice, pasta, tomato-cream soup, pretzel sticks, cereal bags and biscuits, rice or soup. It was possible to supply nearly all 960 food banks across Germany with around 486,514 bags worth over 2.43 million euros. The sales line REWE in Germany has also donated REWE shopping vouchers worth 200,000 euros.

Food banks were much busier during the reporting period due to the large numbers of refugees from Ukraine and increased food and energy prices, which has put enormous strain on the organisation’s capacity. To provide relief, REWE in Germany also made a donation in kind worth 500,000 euros in the form of vouchers.

For twelve years, many employees of the REWE Group have been donating a fixed amount of their salary every month to support education projects by German children’s charity Kindernothilfe in Haiti, in particular, the earthquake-resistant Collège Véréna in Port-au-Prince (see section Together for Haiti). Together with donations from the company, over 4.326 million euros have so far been raised. A new donation phase began in April 2021 and the employees chose the following beneficiary projects from an extended list:

• Safeguarding Schools in Haiti “Die schützende Schule in Haiti” by Kindernothilfe (see section Together for Haiti)
• The Little Home Association Cologne “Little Home Köln e. V.” – mini houses for homeless people (see section Mini Houses for Homeless People)
• The DER Touristik Foundation e. V. – Black Mambas (see section Global Biodiversity: Protection with the DER Touristik Foundation)
• Tafel Deutschland e. V. – Fund for Children and Young People “Kinder- und Jugendfonds”: With their projects, the local food banks are committed to ensuring that disadvantaged children and young people have the same social and cultural educational opportunities as people of the same age from better off families. For example, the fund finances age-appropriate cookery and environmental projects.

toom Baumarkt DIY Store has been supporting “Verein Little Home Köln e. V.” since 2019 with building materials for the “little homes”. These mobile mini houses offer homeless people a safe place to live and support them on their way back into society. 21 mini houses were built in 2022 (2021: 18). A total of 69have been built since 2019. Furthermore, in August of the reporting year, a world record was set for the “most participants in a one-day social mini house construction project”.toom provided the construction site and financed four of the ten mini houses.

Since the earthquake in 2010, the REWE Group has been working in Haiti together with children’s charity “Kindernothilfe” to give children and young people better access to education. Collège Véréna was completely destroyed in the earthquake, but donations enabled it to be rebuilt by 2020. It now provides a school for around 1,500 children in an impoverished district of Port-au-Prince. A fund will continue to provide support for the school and a scholarship programme for gifted school leavers until 2025. The funds also make possible maintenance work and necessary purchases, as well as child sponsorship and the annual Christmas party. Furthermore, the REWE Group has been supporting particularly needy leavers of Collège Véréna and Restavèk children since 2016. Restavèk children are children from rural areas who are sent by their impoverished families to work for host families in the city. Support is provided in the form of vocational training or a course of study.

Other Projects for Haiti:

• Education projects for Restavèk children from rural regions (see Sustainability Report 2021, p. 373)

In 2022, toom Baumarkt DIY Store supported the Oni Hub-in project of the Fair Trees Fund in Georgia by donating tools worth over 3,000 euros for education programmes. Oni is a traditional type of construction that doesn’t use nails. It is part of the national tradition. In Racha, one of the country’s poorest regions, the project aims to develop this tradition into a self-supporting construction method that is compatible with sustainable forestry, promotes tourism and creates jobs.

Together with “Tafel Deutschland e. V.” and other partners, REWE in Germany provides participating schools with “Power Kisten” (power boxes). The “Power Kisten” contain foods for preparing breakfast in class. The foods have been selected by nutrition experts and are always changing. The aim is to give children a healthy start to the day. By the end of 2022, 23 schools and therefore over 1,998 children received the “Power Kisten” every day from Monday to Friday. Just under 456,779 breakfasts were provided throughout the entire school year 2021/22. Over 2 million breakfasts have therefore been given to just under 16,911 children since 2009. Donors supporting the project include brands like Chiquita, Danone, Ehrmann, FrieslandCampina, Mondelez, Nestlé, Unilever, Zentis, Henkel and Eurogroup, which is part of the REWE Group.

In 2022, twelve more schools took part in the “Power Kiste Light” project for the first time. As part of this concept, they are supplied with breakfast items by the REWE delivery service.

REWE also promotes nutrition workshops in some regions of Germany. These workshops aim to teach children in nurseries about healthy nutrition through play. More than 165,161 children have taken part in nutrition workshops promoted by REWE since 2009. 519 workshops (2021: 432) for around 10,380 children were held during the reporting year.

The sales line REWE in Germany has been promoting healthy eating in sport since 2008 as the official nutrition partner of the German Football Association (DFB). Since 2019, the focus has been on children and young people: As part of the “Torhunger” (“Goal Hunger”) campaign, REWE provides support with football camps where they learn important principles about healthy nutrition, for example in practical modules. 3,749 of these camps were held for 178,019 children in 2022.

The REWE Group has been supporting the “5 am Tag” (“5 a Day”) association as a founding member since 2000. The aim is to increase consumption of fruit and vegetables to five portions per day for a healthy diet.

With “Förderpenny”, the sales line PENNY in Germany has been supporting local non-profit organisations involved in promoting children and young people, since 2015. During the reporting year, the sales line expanded “Förderpenny” as part of a new and more regional concept. The objective is to not allow long-term promotion of child and youth work to fade into the background, despite all the challenges and crises. In 2022, PENNY awarded funding amounting to around 760,000 euros (2021: 260,000 euros).

During the reporting year, 3,000 organisations (2021: 850) applied for one of the total of 520 regional “Förderpenny” prizes. From the entries, an independent panel initially chooses two winning organisations from each PENNY neighbourhood region. In the next step, supporters have the chance to vote for their favourite project. After the online customer vote, one project will be in first place (allocated 1,500 euros) and one in second place (allocated 1,000 euros). Since November 2022, the 260 first-place entrants from across Germany also receive the round-up donations and deposit donations from all PENNY stores in their neighbourhood region for one year. Customers provide support by saying “Stimmt so!” (“keep the change!”) when making their payment. The purchase amount is then rounded up to the next 10 cent value.

From the first-place entrants chosen from across Germany by the online customer vote, 15 organisations are nominated for each PENNY region. They can present themselves to a panel during an award ceremony. The panel awards five first places, allocated 10,000 euros, five second places, allocated 7,500 euros and five third places, allocated 5,000 euros.

Since the initiative began, funding amounting to more than 3.65 million euros has been distributed. Around 1.6 million euros of this funding came from customer donations.

The REWE Group in Austria, with trade companies BILLA, BILLA Plus, BIPA and PENNY is also making a commitment with “rounding off”. Thanks to the support of customers, it was possible to raise a total of over 197,135 euros during the reporting year. From 2013 until the end of 2022, a total of 1.395 million euros were donated. The donations went to support projects by Caritas, including “Lerncafés”, special education programmes or Mother and Child Homes.

To promote motor and social development in early childhood, REWE in Germany supports building of inclusive playgrounds, together with charitable organisation “Aktion Mensch” and Procter & Gamble. Since April 2018, a one cent donation from every Procter & Gamble product purchased will go to the project “Stück zum Glück” for inclusive playgrounds. Procter & Gamble have raised over 1.8 million euros since 2019. The money made it possible to build or extend 40 inclusive playgrounds throughout Germany by the end of 2022.

Customers can also support local promotion projects by “Aktion Mensch”, as well as local organisations of their choice, with deposit donations in many REWE stores in Germany. With this approach, over 2.05 million euros were generated and donated in 1,598 stores in 2022 (2021: 1.95 million euros in 1,548 stores).

Furthermore, one cent of every item from the private label “babytime” sold at REWE and PENNY in Germany has gone to different selected “Aktion Mensch” project partners since 2020. Just under 134,647 euros were raised in 2022. These funds supported the creation of a nursery and school inclusion assistance service. The aim of this project is to make inclusive nursery and school attendance in mainstream institutions possible for around 60 children and young people, by providing them with accompaniment by an inclusion assistant.

The REWE Group implements the mentoring project and sponsorship programme “EHRENSACHE” in cooperation with non-profit organisation “Joblinge”, which arranges work placements and entry qualifications for socially disadvantaged young people.

PENNY in Germany has been supporting IW JUNIOR’s national best junior business competition “Bestes Junior Unternehmen” as a sponsor since 2018. IW JUNIOR is a subsidiary of the German Economic Institute (IW). For the competition, which is held at state, national and, later, even at EU level, pupils develop a business idea and try it out for the duration of a school year.

In the education and integration initiative “Lernen macht Schule”, children from socially disadvantaged families and students from the Vienna University of Economics and Business learn with and from each other. Every semester, around 190 “learning buddies” from the university support around 250 children and young people at Caritas facilities. The REWE Group in Austria acts as a business partner and, at the same time, presents itself as an attractive employer.

Since 2009, the REWE nahkauf sales format has been committed to the association “BILD hilft e. V. “Ein Herz für Kinder”” that supports children and families in emergency situations. In 2022, a total of 500,000 euros were donated to the organisation (2021: 400,000 euros). Over 4.1 million euros have been raised since the partnership began.

As part of the work of the non-profit DER Touristik Foundation, DER Touristik creates prospects for the future by supporting and promoting young people through educational measures. The following projects were promoted during the reporting year:

• Support for four unemployed young people from disadvantaged circumstances in South Africa with their training to become travel and tourism advisers, together with the local destination agency.
• Promotion of practical training in more sustainable tourism for 15 secondary school pupils from Meru farmer and Massai families in Tanzania, through a project with the Africa Amini Alama e. V. organisation. This will give them employment prospects in the region.
• In Indonesia, the DER Touristik Foundation finances training in local tour guiding, food preparation and running guest houses on the island of Flores and therefore creates jobs for the local population on the Trans-Flores route. The organisation DMO Flores is the project partner.

More training projects of the DER Touristik Foundation:

• Training restaurant “KOTO” in Vietnam for young Vietnamese people from disadvantaged backgrounds (see Sustainability Report 2021, p. 374)
• “Pimali” centre in Thailand for orphans and young Thai people from disadvantaged backgrounds (see Sustainability Report 2021, p. 375)
• “Smiling Gecko Farmhouse Resort and Spa” in Cambodia for young Cambodian people from disadvantaged backgrounds (see Sustainability Report 2021, p. 376)

In 2022, REWE in Germany and NABU added another element to their long-term partnership. Starting in 2022, REWE will contribute five million euros to the newly established NABU Climate Fund every year for five years. The fund aims to combat drainage of peatlands caused by agriculture and peat extraction, as well as the resulting release of large quantities of greenhouse gases. To achieve this objective, heavily drained peatlands are to be purchased or leased on a long-term basis and, secondly, agricultural farms are to be supported in converting from conventional farming methods to climate-friendly wet meadow management. With the future in mind, the aim is also to promote climate-friendly eco farming (more detailed information can be found in Climate Protection in the Supply Chain und Biodiversity).

As part of the non-profit organisation the DER Touristik Foundation e. V., DER Touristik promotes various projects to protect biodiversity and the environment. A project in southern Sri Lanka was included in the promotion activities in 2022. The association supports restoration of a destroyed mangrove forest through a project of the organisation Wildlife & Ocean Resource Conservation. The lagoon community is involved in the project activities to save the eco system and can tap into new sources of income through development of eco tourism.

More biodiversity and environmental projects of the DER Touristik Foundation:

• Anti-poaching unit “Black Mambas” in South Africa (see Sustainability Report 2021, p. 375)
• Environmental education programme “Living in Harmony with Nature” in Tanzania (see Sustainability Report 2021, p. 376)
• Project “Chilis gegen Elefanten” to use chillis to keep elephants out of crops in Tanzania (see Biodiversity and Sustainability Report 2021, p. 382)
• Rearing Aldabra turtles from Île aux Aigrettes on Mauritius (see Sustainability Report 2021, p. 375)
• Coral reef restoration on the Caribbean island of Barbados (Sustainability Report NHB 2021, p. 375)