SOCIETY

The United Nations has set 2030 as the time horizon for reaching the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 sub-goals. Unlike the previous Millennium Development Goals, that were scheduled for completion in the last fifteen years, the Sustainable Development Goals are global, given that all countries, developed and developing ones, are required to implement them.

The first sustainable development goal of the UN is zero poverty. Whereas the rate of extreme poverty has fallen by more than half since 1990, one in five people in developing regions continues to live on less than US$1.25 a day, and there are millions of people who earn just a little more than that amount, with many of them confronted with the risk of relapsing into poverty.

Poverty is more than lack of income and resources to ensure a sustainable livelihood. Poverty takes many forms, such as hunger, malnutrition, limited access to education and other basic services, social discrimination and exclusion, as well as the lack of participation in decision making. Economic growth must be inclusive, providing sustainable jobs and promoting equality.

KPMG and its network of member firms play their own role in the development of corporate social responsibility. In Greece, KPMG placed Sustainable Development at the heart of its philosophy from the outset. As active citizens for our company, our clients and our markets, we have developed a set of multi-level actions.

We have done so because we fundamentally believe in teamwork and collaborative spirit as well as in the development and improvement of the local communities in which we operate.

Subsequently, on the occasion of the International Day Against Poverty we created the Cook for Good action in support of objectives 1 and 2 of the UN on combating poverty and hunger, respectively. The aim of the action is the preparation and cooking of 100 meals for people in need.

In order to achieve the goal, we contacted Alexandros Papandreou’s cooking lab, which was selected as the venue of the action, and inspired a group of volunteers to take part in the action. 

We then notified the ‘Boroume’ NGO of our intention to proceed with this charitable offer, and the NGO acted as the liaison between KPMG and the Social Kitchen of Agia Paraskevi. 

All that was left to do was the purchase of the necessary food ingredients from the local store of a well-known food chain.