"It filled us with great gratitude that we were able to hand over a total of EUR 4000 in donations to the community foundation. We are very grateful to our customers, partners and suppliers at this point and look forward to many more projects," says Mirja Schmidbauer, Managing Partner of Elma Schmidbauer GmbH.
One of the many activities of the community foundation is the charitable project "School Breakfast". This is an individual project of the "Kinderchancen Singen e.V." association. The aim of the organisation is to permanently improve the living conditions of children in Singen. Children growing up under difficult social conditions and in material poverty are at the centre of attention. The "Healthy Breakfast" is offered at several schools and day-care centres in Singen.
Twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays, children receive a breakfast on a voluntary basis, which is lovingly prepared by many hard-working volunteers. The ElmaCrew was on site again this year to help prepare the breakfast. Mirja Schmidbauer was joined by her mother Cornelia Schmidbauer, also Managing Partner, and the four division managers.
"It is very important to us to support projects of this kind in the region and it fills us with great joy. But it also makes us feel humble and thoughtful that there are children in our society who are sent to school without breakfast from home," remarks Cornelia Schmidbauer.
In Singen, around 20% of children come from so-called precarious situations. This puts Singen in line with a sad nationwide trend in which one in five children under the age of 18 in Germany are affected by child poverty. "For a highly developed industrialised country like Germany, these figures are alarming and far too high. Child poverty reduces the chances of a good school-leaving qualification and thus makes it considerably more difficult for children to start their future careers. Politicians still have a lot of work to do here," comments Mirja Schmidbauer.
The ElmaCrew left the school thoughtfully and with a great deal of humility - but also with a large portion of gratitude for the many sparkling children's eyes.