The country’s leading fastfood chain inaugurated a brand new classroom here for the students of Bago Elementary School just in time for the June school opening. This is one of the 40 classrooms that Jollibee committed to construct under its Build-A-Classroom project, an undertaking with the Jollibee Franchisees Association and the Jollibee Foundation. It also represents the company’s support of the Bayanihang Pampaaralan program, being among the first private organizations to come forward to help address the classroom gap.
Present at the inauguration were Davao City’s 3rd district councilor and hairperson for Education, Science &Technology, Arts & Culture, Myrna Daloda-Ortiz; Susana Teresa Estigoy, Department of Education (DepEd) regional director; Beng Huyog, Jollibee vice president and regional business unit head for VisMin; Gisela Tiongson, Jollibee Foundation executive director ; Arline Adeva, Jollibee senior PR manager; and Ms. Cha Cruz representing Jollibee Davao franchisee Carlos Cruz.
“We are very happy to finally turn over our gift to the students of Bago Elementary School with this new classroom,” said Adeva. “Jollibee is steadfast in extending the same help to other schools in other parts of the country, especially those which are under DepEd’s list of priority schools for classroom construction.”
From among the schools included in the DepEd’s priority list, Jollibee identified those which have been participating for at least two years under the Busog Lusog Talino (BLT) School Feeding Program of Jollibee Foundation. Bago Elementary School has been a BLT beneficiary since 2009 with 40 of its Grades 1 and 2 pupils each year, covered by the in-school feeding program. To date, 80% of these students have achieved their normal weight status after one year of the feeding cycle.
“After Jollibee’s groundbreaking ceremony in Pampanga, we are very happy to learn that a classroom has already been completed in Davao,” said Estigoy. “The company did not just prove how committed they are in addressing infrastructure gaps in public education, but is also inspiring other private sector organizations to act now and contribute to a meaningful cause.”
The Build-A-Classroom project was one of the components of last year’s Maaga ang Pasko, which integrated a fund-raising effort through the Jollibee and Friends dolls novelty offering. With more than 400,000 Jollibee and Friends dolls sold and the additional support from Jollibee Franchisees Association and the Jollibee Foundation, a total of P20 million was raised—enough for the construction of at least 40 classrooms all over the country.
Construction of the first eleven classrooms commenced this summer and from this initial batch, two are located in Davao City — with the other one in RC Quimpo Elementary School.
