Christmas Charity: Supporting Zupa na Plantach

This year as Grand Parade we decided to donate 50,000 PLN, our Christmas party budget, to charity and support Zupa na Plantach Initiative („ZUPA Foundation”) in Kraków. They do many amazing things - we’re extremely happy and pretty proud too that we can support their activities.

If you don't know the initiative go and check them out! They do a lot of good and spread kindness not only in Krakow: Zupa na Plantach (https://zupanaplantach.pl) help homeless and poor people, especially now, during cold autumn and winter months. They are located in Kraków and work mostly locally but with units in other cities too!

Kamil Stauch, Krakow Site Director in Grand Parade, said:

The 2020 pandemic showed clearly that as tech industry we are in a slightly more privileged position than those in other industries: we were less affected by the economic distress, it was easier for us to work remotely without putting ourselves in danger and the whole lockdown accelerated a number of processes making the technology even more crucial. On the other side of the spectrum, we have Zupa na Plantach, a foundation supporting the homeless with a warm meal, those excluded, marginalized, ignored and for whom both work and home are sometimes off-limits.

It is hard to find a better contrast that would show that as a company or business, we are one of the actors in society and that our responsibility should go beyond "maximizing profits for shareholders", especially when we are better off and slightly more fortunate in our life.

Yes, gambling industry has different connotations and one can say a lot about companies operating in this business. But it is hard to deny that our mission as William Hill is not only to be the best business but also the most responsible one and one that Gives a Damn.

We wanted to make sure that the effort we put in this initiative is more than financial support only - so that’s why despite challenging times we organised food and clothing drive in our Kotlarska office. We managed to collect boxes full of a lot of food including the ones with long shelf-life, warm clothes and shoes, hygiene and self-protection products and many other items that protect homeless people from cold and rain. All of that, packed in boxes was transported to ZUPA headquarter so they can share it with people in need.

What’s more, last week we hosted a webinar with Piotr Żyłka - the founder of ZUPA foundation. This way we could learn a bit more about volunteering opportunities - and there are many of them! If you're interested, feel free to contact Zupa na Plantach directly via the website or Facebook page.

We asked Zupa na Plantach if they already know how they want to spend the money. They shared with us initial plans: donated money will be used for kitchen renovation where the foundation and volunteers normally work and prepare all meals and packages (it is a good time for that because they can't cook now due to the pandemic situation) and for purchase of men's winter shoes, underpants, warm sleeping bags that allow spending the night at low temperatures (these products are needed on an ongoing basis, but due to their specificity, it is good to invest in more decent things here).