Chiquita celebrates World Children’s Day

Chiquita bananas have always been a favorite with children (and their parents) because they’re the ideal snack to fuel their busy lifestyle – natural, convenient, super tasty and top quality.

World Children’s Day celebrates the adoption of the important children’s rights declaration and convention. It’s a day for promoting the need to improve children’s welfare around the world, protect them from harm, and act to build a better world for them to live in. At Chiquita, we aim to play our part in protecting their future by being as sustainable as possible.

Sustainability is at the heart of everything we do, and as part of this it’s essential to ensure our operations respect child rights in the communities where we work. Around the world, children are showing their strength and leadership by advocating for a more sustainable world for all, so we urge everyone to join them, build on the advances that have been made, and re-commit to putting children first: for every child, every right.

Our involvement with children has been strong from the start because we believe in investing in future generations. For example, as part of our “Being a Good Neighbour” initiative – our commitment to the communities our employees live in – we support the education of our employees’ children, investing in school infrastructure and offering school packages.

Each year, we distribute over 3,300 school packages to the children of our employees in the tropical areas where our bananas grow, including Guatemala, Honduras and Costa Rica. The school packages support children with some of the material they need to excel in education and have hope for their future. For decades, Chiquita has been a world leader in eliminating child labor from the industry: the situation is constantly reviewed and certified by third party external auditors such as Rainforest Alliance and SA8000.

Chiquita’s approach to supporting local communities is embedded within our ‘Behind the Blue sticker’ sustainability approach. To find out more, please visit: https://chiquitab2b.nohup.it/sustainability/

We have identified children as our most vulnerable group of stakeholders and commissioned the industry’s first child rights impact assessment at our farms in Costa Rica and Panama, working with a human rights consultancy to tailor UNICEF’s impact assessment tools to our contexts. We fully endorse the Children’s Rights and Business Principles (CRBPs) developed by UNICEF, the UN Global Compact and Save the Children.

A delicious Chiquita banana is brimming with essential vitamins and nutrients, including Vitamin B6, soluble fibre, manganese and potassium, to nourish their bodies and fuel their amazing imaginations. We understand that education, health and access to play are vital to a child’s future, and we’re proud that Chiquita and our bananas, with their delicious taste and top quality, can play an important part in ensuring children everywhere have access to healthy food and the best possible future.

To learn more, visit https://chiquitab2b.nohup.it/sustainability/