1,200 Chungjeongone products donated to 10 Smile Houses

700 meal vouchers delivered through 'Chunchun-ui Bap' restaurant program

An exterior view of the Smilegate headquarters in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province [Smilegate]
An exterior view of the Smilegate headquarters in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province [Smilegate]

Smilegate Hope Studio has partnered with Daesang Corp. to support children, adolescents and independent youth who fall through the cracks of the social welfare system. The collaboration will deliver 1,200 food products donated by Daesang and 700 meal vouchers to child welfare facilities and youth centers to help improve the diets of vulnerable groups.

Hope Studio announced Wednesday that it would distribute the donated food and meal vouchers to at-risk children, adolescents and youth living independently.

Daesang will provide a total of 1,200 products — including three varieties of Chungjeongone spaghetti sauce and two types of snacks — to 10 Smile House locations, child welfare residential facilities and youth centers. The company will also supply 700 meal vouchers tied to Chunchun-ui Bap, one of the Daesang Group's flagship corporate social responsibility projects. Chunchun-ui Bap is a community partnership in which the Daesang University Student Volunteer Corps participates directly to help small restaurants near university campuses stay in business.

The donation drive traces its origins to "I'm Fine Dining," a video series produced by Hope Studio and released in April. The series uses cooking as a vehicle to strengthen bonds between donors and beneficiaries and to document changes in participants' lives. Chef Kim Hun's introduction of Daesang's Chungjeongone pasta sauce in the series served as the catalyst for the two organizations to join forces on the donation.

"This initiative was designed to connect Daesang's products and meal support directly to children, adolescents and young people in need, and to amplify the impact of that support by drawing on the expertise and networks of each participating organization," said Kim Kyung-suk, head of Daesang's environmental, social and governance management division. "Going forward, we will continue working with a range of partners to identify where practical support is needed most, and to channel our corporate resources and capabilities toward sharing the value of giving with more of our neighbors."

"Content capturing the change created together by Hope Studio and our donors has now sparked yet another act of giving," said Kwon Yeon-ju, a director at Hope Studio. "We will keep expanding our positive influence alongside diverse social actors as a corporate social responsibility platform."

Meanwhile, Hope Studio is spreading a culture of giving through a gamification-based platform developed in partnership with various game companies and intellectual property holders it calls Hope Partners.


chami@heraldcorp.com