Odyssey Foundation Inc., the corporate social responsibility arm of CDO-Foodsphere Inc., marks its 15th year of nurturing lives and helping underprivileged Filipinos in June 2019.
“It is said that a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. Odyssey Foundation’s 15-year journey started with our desire to reach out to our communities. It is has been our commitment to support an organization that helps nourish lives. Being a food company, nutrition has been the core program of Odyssey Foundation,” said OFI president Jerome Ong.
Formally established on June 4, 2004, OFI is observing its anniversary under the theme “15 years of Nurturing Lives” in line with its vision to be a catalyst of social development for the benefit of the less privileged and marginalized members of Philippine society.
OFI co-chairs Jose Ong and Corazon Ong said the foundation was launched in Valenzuela City in 2004 with nutrition as the maiden initiative. “We later expanded these CSR efforts to include NEELS which refers to nutrition, education, environment, livelihood and service to humanity.
NEELS represents the commitment of OFI to help uplift the lives of those who are in need,” said the OFI founders.
“We duplicated and expanded the social endeavors in Malvar, Batangas which is the site of our modern manufacturing plant,” said Jerome Ong.
OFI now focuses on developing programs concerning children nourishment, education, livelihood enhancement and environmental advocacy.
It is guided by the general framework of social development, firmly anchored on its principle of giving back something to the community.
“We envision seeing healthy and well-nourished children in our communities. The supplemental feeding program became our maiden way of sharing our resources by giving children a chance for a healthier and better life,” said Jerome Ong.
From that single step, Odyssey Foundation started building partnerships over the years.
“We shall continue to embrace the hallmarks of good values, best practices and good governance through transparency, accountability and high level of professionalism,” said Jerome Ong.
OFI has helped feed more than 25,000 hungry and undernourished children, supplied learning materials to over 10,000 elementary and high school students, planted hundreds of trees including vegetables for poor communities, provided livelihood training to over 3,000 individuals, donated 50 houses in Yolanda stricken-areas and rendered medical missions to more than 5,000 poor people, mostly children.
“Foodsphere Inc. has grown to become a leading food company because of the loyal support of our customers, who became accustomed to our high-quality, but affordable products. As we become bigger as a company, we recognize the need to reach out to the segments of our society who have less in life and do not have enough access to proper nutrition,” Jose and Corazon Ong said.
“It has become our commitment to help these segments of our population, particularly the undernourished children. Sharing and giving has thus been integrated into our corporate values. We feel that as a food company, we should take the lead in sharing not only food, but also hope with less-fortunate brothers, sisters and children,” they said.
The founders of CDO-Foodsphere and OFI agreed to sustain the operations of the foundation in order to help more people.
“We believe in the capacity of the people to take an active role in their own development and success. We will strive to create avenues for them to be productive members of society. Sharing and giving is indeed a shared and social commitment that has become a core value of our company. In God’s hand, we entrust the future of Odyssey Foundation as we continue to serve Him and the people,” the company and foundation founders said.