US food giant helps poor students in Tibet

The Shanghai Overseas Chinese Foundation is cooperating with US food giant General Mills' Chinese branch to support poor students in Tibet.

Through the cooperation, launched on Wednesday, each payment consumers make by Alipay at any Haagen-Dazs outlet in China will add 0.1 yuan to the foundation’s "Education Support Project for Rural Children in Western of China."

The scheme had been running for more than a month in a trial operation, General Mills said. It will continue through May next year.

The foundation, a local charity organization under the Shanghai Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, said it had initiated the education support program in July 2018. Besides funding for Tibetan students, it also provides the students with courses in Tibetan traditional skills such as tangka painting — a religious painting on a scroll — and Tibetan medicine.

By April, this program had supported five schools in Tibet and helped with 2,500 students' studies.

James Chiu, vice president and managing director of General Mills China, told Shanghai Daily it had been cooperating with the foundation during the coronavirus pandemic. Owner of the Wanchai Ferry dumpling brand, when local hospitals were battling coronavirus, they donated dumplings to medics at hospitals in Shanghai.

"As a food supplier, our local food factories resumed production as early as January 28. At that time, the transport and logistics were restricted because of the epidemic," said Chiu. "The city government and the government in the Pudong New Area had provided us with lots of support."

Now the company wanted to work with the government more to help those in need.

Wang Jue, Party secretary of the Shanghai Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, said it was good to see large enterprises like General Mills contributing to campaigns such as the fight against coronavirus and projects for poverty alleviation.