Staff and students buying bottled water on campus have helped make an impact in Malawi.
Two years ago, the catering arm of Residential, Sport and Commercial Services decided to stock ‘One’ water in all their outlets and hospitality services to support the University’s Fairtrade ethos.
By doing this, a percentage of the profit was donated towards providing a fresh drinking water well in Malawi.
The University of Liverpool well is situated on the site of Ostria Primary School, which is attended by 785 children, and also provides fresh, clean drinking water to 2,514 adults in the wider community.
Gail Cowen from Educatering said: “Thanks to all our customers, this community in Malawi has fresh water and a better life and we hope to continue our support and provide more wells for the children of Africa.”
Looking at One Water’s website, all of the profits made by ‘One’ go to funding Playpumps in Africa. Does the University also donate a percentage of its mark-up profit to the charity?
Thank you for your query regarding One Water. The Catering Service does not make a profit, in fact it makes a loss currently and so we are not able at this time to make any additional donations to One Water. We have just appointed a Director of Commercial Services who has been tasked with bringing the Catering Service into at least a break even position. When this happens we will be able to review our approach to charity giving.