SM Shares Holiday Cheer with Kalinga Donation Drive

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The Kalinga Donation Drive has brought so much Christmas cheer to thousands of Filipino families all over the Philippines. This was made possible because the SM Group worked together to bring happiness to this country in this pandemic year.

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SM Cares, SM Foundation, SM group, SM Supermarket, Noche Buena packs, SM City Bacolod, charity, sharing, seaside villages, Covid-19, Covid-19 pandemic, typhoon victims, physical distancing, face masks, face shield, Kalinga Christmas gift packs, Kalinga donation drive — ~ You cannot deny the “smize”, or the smile behind the mask of this woman holding a Kalinga Christmas gift pack. ~

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The Kalinga Donation Drive

SM Foundation, Inc, SM Supermalls, SM Markets, and SM Retail worked hard to bring Christmas cheer to thousands of Filipino families. They gave out thousands of Kalinga Christmas packs to various communities around the country over the weekend.

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This joint project by the organizations in the SM Group was mobilized to bring essentials and gifts to residents and gifts to communities and sectors in need.

Dubbed Kalinga Donation Drive, more than 70,000 gift packs were spread out all over the country. These were given to communities still most especially affected by the pandemic, like the urban poor, fisherfolk, displaced vendors, street sweepers, garbage haulers, and waste pickers. Persons with disabilities, senior groups, farmers, and many more were covered.

Bringing Joy to People Hit Hard this Year

Gifting these packs to these people and their families is for them to feel the joy of Christmas despite the challenges and difficulties brought about by COVID-19 pandemic. And of course there were the consecutive typhoons that hit the country.

“Christmas is the time for solidarity in taking care of the underpriviledged in our communities,” said SM Supermalls President Steven Tan. “It’s through our concerted efforts that we can make this possible.”

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Tan, along with SM Hypermarket president Arnold Dalus, SM Retail senior vice president Eugene Saw, and SM Foundation assistant vice president Cristie Angeles, led the gift-giving activity of Christmas Kalinga packs to residents of Baranggay 14, District 1 in Pasay City.

~ Spreading joy with a simple gift-giving. Here’s SM City Bacolod PRM May Castro doing her rounds of being Missy Santa in blue. ~

Across the country where SM Supermalls and affiliates are located, the same Kalinga packs made their way to various communities through the SM Cares program with the help of employee volunteers.

In Bacolod City, the SM mall and affiliates, including The SM Store and SM Supermarket, gave gifts to fisherfolk who reside at the city’s shoreline barangays. They also visited displaced informal vendors and wastep ickers who make their ends meet by scavaging the city’s dumpsite.

Victims of the recent fire that struck Baranggay 10 near SM City Bacolod were also given Kalinga Christmas gift packs.

What’s Inside the Kalinga Christmas Gift Pack?

Inside each Kalinga gift pack contained several kilos of rice and other food essentials. The Kalinga Donation Drive is the joint effort of different SM Groups.

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Since Covid-19 is still around us, the distribution was held following minimum health protocols. Physical distancing was maintained at all times amongst the staff and the recipients.