16 October is the annual World Food Day which commemorates the founding of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and raises awareness of food security. In mid-October, global fast-food giant KFC launched its 2024 campaign to reduce food waste. KFC has been holding its World Food Day campaigns since 2020.
In China, KFC created its “Food Station”(食物驿站) in 2020 to work with its suppliers to give away surplus food in the form of gift bags donated to people and groups in need. This year, the restaurant chain worked with 8 of its suppliers in the country under the instructions of the China Consumers Association to give away over 20,000 gift bags across 100 cities. KFC also awarded the title “K’s Fried Chicken Man” (肯家炸鸡侠) to its partners for the good deeds they did for both reducing food waste and helping out people in need.
This year, KFC also teamed up with its brand ambassador Chinese actor Zhu Yilong to film a short “unboxing” video of the gift bags, showing off how the surplus food is packaged and distributed through the “Food Station” system. On Weibo, China’s Twitter equivalent, the topic “KFC Food Station” (#肯德基食物驿站#) has accumulated over 57.08 million views, with 3.81 million in the past 30 days. This is, of course, partly to do with the star power of Zhu, but it is also effective in bringing interest to the cause.
The “Food Station” is a proactive way of celebrating World Food Day and raises awareness of both food waste and hunger, and is a great ESG campaign for not only KFC but its stakeholders. Suppliers such as Sheng Nong made themselves visible to general consumers by working with KFC. It also takes both the international brand and its local suppliers closer to the communities in China.
