A school in Porac, nestled in the mountains and serving the Aeta Community, received learning essentials through the 2023 Back-To-School Donation Drive recently conducted by homegrown brand Mekeni Food Corporation in partnership with its Retail Electricity Supplier (RES) and Meralco’s first affiliate RES, Vantage Energy Solutions and Management Inc.

The Villa Maria Integrated School in Porac received backpacks, books, school supplies, printers, and reusable water bottles, benefiting both the faculty and the students from kindergarten to high school.

The donation drive is conducted through Vantage Energy’s umbrella program, iMPower, which aims to give back to the community they serve by supporting Filipino education.

Mekeni also donated 14 wall fans to the school, and fed more than 500 students and school personnel.

“The meals were prepared by Mekeni employees themselves,” said Mekeni AVP for HR and Exports Marilou Uy.

Uy, along with Mekeni’s Human Resources and Marketing Departments, joined the program.

At the same time, Mekeni also conducted an emergency preparedness training led by the Emergency Preparedness and Response team.

According to Uy, Mekeni wishes to continue to uplift the lives of the community and and help fellow Kapampangans, especially the Katutubo in Pampanga. Additionally, Uy revealed that Tatay Felix Garcia, the founder of Mekeni and a former teacher, shares a close personal relationship to this project because he was among the first volunteers to be deployed as teachers in IP communities.

Vantage Energy’s annual Back-To-School Donation Drive was launched in 2020 during the pandemic with the support of customer partners like Mekeni. Since then, the program has already reached 19 schools and over 19,000 students nationwide.