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Monday, July 8, 2024

SM Store Launches Shop & Share for Education program to empower Filipino children



The SM Store recently relaunched its Shop & Share for Education program, which will provide students with back-to-school kits in time for the start of the academic year 2024-2025.

Shop & Share for Education intends to distribute back-to-school kits to 12,000 elementary school students in more than 70 public schools across the nation. The initiative, which runs from July 1 to July 31, encourages shoppers who make a minimum single-receipt purchase of P3,000 to sponsor a child's school kit for P100. The kits include notebooks, pad paper, pencils and ballpoint pens, envelopes, and bond paper.

Shop & Share for Education, now in its second year, is an effort by SM Store to address the lack of access to basic school supplies, which is a high priority issue in the Philippine education sector. According to Department of Education data, more than 22 million students were enrolled in public schools during the school year 2023-2024. According to a report by the non-governmental organization Save the Children Philippines, many Filipino students in remote areas do not even have a pencil. 

The first Shop & Share initiative benefited 20 schools across the country, working with a variety of NGOs and the adopted schools' local government units. The effort was successful because it demonstrated how the SM Store, given its size and national reach, can serve as an excellent platform for collaborative social good. This year's initiative will require each SM Store to adopt one school beneficiary.

SM Store believes that involving its customers has a greater impact on the program's beneficiaries. Everyone is encouraged to contribute by adding the school kit to the list for the next shopping trip in July. Each sponsored school kit represents an enhanced learning experience for a schoolchild in need today, who will one day become a steward of a brighter future. 

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