Fast food franchise KFC South Africa has expressed its disappointment over some of its outlets using its Add Hope campaign as a performance measurement tool for employees.
Speaking to the Saturday Star on Friday, KFC said that practice was contrary to the company’s beliefs.
“This goes against the value and ethos of Add Hope, which we have worked hard to build over the past 15 years. Add Hope donations have and always will be completely voluntary. We chase hope, not targets and, thus, Add Hope performance-based KPIs should never be set for anyone,” the franchise said.
This came after a warning letter was leaked on social media to an employee who failed to meet the Add Hope quota target set by the store.
Add Hope is KFC SA’s charity campaign. Customers are given an option to add R2 to their order to help children in need.
The company said it had mechanisms in place that sought to deal with cases that were not in line with the company’s policies.
“As a franchised business, we implement systems and processes to deal with incidents that do not align to our ethos and values, and have already taken immediate action to address this incident, specifically with the partner in question. We are also reminding our teams that a whistle-blower line exists to report matters such as this,” KFC said.
In December last year, the KFC Add Hope campaign raised R19m for Gift of the Givers.
“We are thrilled to share some heart-warming news that speaks volumes about the incredible generosity and compassion within South Africa. Thanks to the overwhelming support and contributions from South African customers this past December,” the store said in it communique.
The store said it had topped the R9m with an extra R10m, which brought the total donated to Gift of the Givers to R19 032116.
The store said it was proud of the collective efforts of every community member who had sacrificed their hard-earned money and trusted the store to put it to good use.
“We are proud to report that the collective efforts of our community have far surpassed our initial goals.”
Speaking to the Saturday Star, Gift of the Givers project manager Ali Sablay confirmed to the publication that the donation had been handed to the organisation.
“South Africans, yet again, have shown the spirit of Ubuntu, with a campaign that running from December 1 to 31.
“This is a positive sign as we have many project that we are running in various rural areas, where, as Gift of the Givers, we would be providing feeding schemes with additional ingredients in order to make sure that no child would go to sleep hungry,” he said.
Sablay said the money would go a long way, especially in the Eastern Cape where many children died of hunger.
“With this partnership we have with KFC, we can be able to sustain our feeding schemes for a long period and provide a child with a full meal.”
Sablay said Gift of the Givers had previously partnered with KFC in 2022, during the Covid season.
He said that has been the start of the great partnership between Gift of the Givers and KFC. The partnership bore many good things as last year the store had managed to donate about R10m to its adult programme, which he described as a positive sign, adding that it would go a long way for its adult health campaign.
Saturday Star