Tuesday, 04 October 2022 13:42

Walmart works and invests in sustainability, SMEs, nutrition and support for women entrepreneurs

Written by Coralia Cuellar// Evelyn Alas

Walmart has always worked for social investment causes, such as: nutrition, sustainability, support for women entrepreneurs and support for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), the company has also established shared value strategies.

Through these strategies, the company has found opportunities within the population to help the communities where Walmart supermarkets and plants operate, which contributes to improving the living conditions of salvadorans near its operations.

One program is “De una mano para crecer”, which is aimed at local manufacturers, through which the company has made purchases of more than US$6 million from SMEs, 20% of which are led by women, who receive commercial and technical support and training.

Sandra Ganuza, corporate affairs coordinator for Walmart El Salvador, commented that "this percentage of women have an open window because their products stand out for their quality and are now placed in the diverse chain of stores such as Despensa Familiar, Maxi Despensa, Despensa de Don Juan and Walmart".

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In the digital part there is a program that was aimed especially at women is "business transformation", which leads to women entrepreneurs to excel with technology that was an alliance with Voces Vitales de El Salvador.

There are 19 SMEs that participated in this program to improve their capabilities in the digital field.

There is also the “Tierra fértil” program, which provides support to small agricultural suppliers in the country.

The objective of this project is to increase local purchases and reduce external purchases; therefore, the company is seeking new alternatives, small SME suppliers to whom it can provide purchasing, support with good agricultural practices and help with manufacturing to promote the development of sustainable agriculture.

Through this program, farmers learn to produce in controlled environments such as greenhouses, which are located in the highlands of Chalatenango and Nahuizalco in Las Pilas.  The types of crops that the farmers harvest are: vegetables, legumes, and lettuce.

Another of the programs that Walmart wants to publicize is the support to the Food Bank project, which is aimed at the cause of access to nutrition and has become one of the company's major shared value projects.

The Food Bank has enabled the rescue of more than 3 billion foodstuffs for human consumption, but not for sale. This food has been channeled to support nursing homes, schools and communities that are registered in this program.