Press Release 4th August 2023

Summer weeks by Hobby Lobby and Teach for Austria: 1,350 BILLA snack bags for disadvantaged children in Vienna

Four people standing on a balcony, smiling and holding Billa-branded bags and a box. The setting is outdoors with greenery and a building in the background.

(from left to right) Eric Scharnitz (BILLA Sales Director), Magdalena Pyka-Dietrich (Teach For Austria Corporate Cooperations), Magdalena Zak (Vienna Hobby Lobby Deputy Managing Director & Operational Management), as well as Jürgen Marker (BILLA Sales Manager) are pleased that 150 pupils were supported with BILLA Jausensackerl during this year's summer weeks. / Copyright: BILLA / Robert Harson, Reproduction for PR purposes free of charge

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At a glance

Hobby Lobby and Teach For Austria offer free learning support and a varied leisure program for children and young people from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds as part of the summer weeks.
BILLA supported the project for the third time this year - in the spirit of neighborly cooperation, the students were provided with a healthy snack.
On nine days, employees of two BILLA stores and one BILLA PLUS location prepared a total of 1,350 snack bags filled with rolls, fruit and muesli bars.

In this country, around 289,000 children and young people live below the income poverty line. In no other EU country does educational success depend so much on the income, status and educational level of parents as in Austria. Achieving more equal opportunities in education is the goal of Teach For Austria. Hobby Lobby also pursues this mission and works for more educational equality in the informal sector. With the jointly organized summer weeks, children and young people from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds in Vienna receive free vacation support. This year, the Summer Weeks took place from July 24 to August 3 and offered learning support in the school subjects English, German and mathematics to a total of 150 students between the ages of ten and 16. In the afternoon, the children and young people discovered new strengths and potential with a varied leisure program: from soccer and basketball to acting and street art.

BILLA provided healthy snacks for learning success

BILLA supported the summer weeks this year for the third year in a row with healthy snack packs: A total of 1,350 snack sacks filled with rolls, fruit and muesli bars were provided for the children and young people during the nine days. The bags were freshly put together every day by the employees in the BILLA stores at Thomas Klestil Platz/Erdbergstraße (Landstraße) as well as in Erlachgasse (Favoriten) and in the BILLA PLUS in Jedleseer Straße (Floridsdorf) and provided to the schools in Kempelengasse (Favoriten) and Markhofgasse (Landstraße) as well as in the Wien Zimmer in Karl-Seitz-Hof (Floridsdorf).

BILLA Sales Director Eric Scharnitz paid a visit to the location at Karl-Seitz-Hof: "The Summer Weeks organized by Teach For Austria and Hobby Lobby are a great project with a vision that we at BILLA were happy to support again. We hope the snacks provided gave the 150 children and young people plenty of energy - and that they spent the days having fun and enjoying themselves, experiencing lots of learning successes."

Rosa Bergmann, Managing Director Hobby Lobby says: "The healthy snack from BILLA was the perfect tonic for the children and young people who took part. Thus, they were more motivated for the learning support in the morning and could give their all in the sports and creative program in the afternoon. We are very grateful for the great support and the perfect, smooth handling!"