Kellog’s breakfast cereals are well known, and this brand recognition is being leveraged to invest in a health initiative that has already seen food distributed to over seven million people in Australia since the The Breakfasts for Better Days  program was launched in February 2013.

In brief, Kellog’s is donating one breakfast to a child or family in need, for every box of cereal sold. They state that in Australia, one in seven kids don’t eat breakfast, and that this has an effect on important developmental learning and social interactions.  The program has already donated seven million meals, and aims to feed 12 million Aussie children and families by 2016. With only five million more meals to serve in the next two years, it looks like they will meet (or even exceed) their target. This Australian strategy contributes to the global initiative, which is hoping to feed half a billion people by 2016.

This initiative is similar to the recent Virgin social media campaign reviewed by Sustaining People, in the article Virgin Mobile is Cooking with Hashtags. Virgin’s campaign was to encourage people to take photos of their food, and for every picture labelled #mealforameal, they (in conjunction with Ozharvest) would provide a meal to someone in need.

The brilliance of Kellog’s campaign is that it closely aligns its products with its CSR initiatives, more so than the Virgin Mobile campaign. Whereas #mealforameal encourages consumers to take to social media, in the hopes of increasing its customers’ mobile data usage, Kellog’s Breakfast for Better Days is dependent on consumers buying their products to donate. This ensures that people buying their breakfast staples will be contributing to social initiatives; at no additional cost to consumers, Kellog’s is now an attractive alternative to other comparable brands as consumers increasingly focus on the social value of their spending habits. Additionally it acts as an incentive for Kellog’s employees to maximise sales to increase the effectiveness of the campaign. They have hit the right spot in engaging both consumers and employees.

This program is part of Kellog’s focus on health and wellbeing, which is an appropriate way for them to engage in the community given their product line. Breakfasts for Better Days partners with OzHarvest and Foodbank, and additionally improves the nutrition of school age children through their Breakfast Buddies programs.

Check out their most recent Corporate Responsibility Report, and their wider Sustainability Commitments and projections to 2020, and you’ll see why they are starting to be a real force behind mitigating poverty throughout the world. To this end Kellog’s have also been named one of the world’s most ethical companies, in a global survey by Ethisphere, and you can read about it here.