Colruyt Group Academy distributes 5,000 sewing packages to make face masks in order to donate 125,000 masks to social services
Colruyt Group Academy and its partners offer customers free do-it-yourself face mask sewing packages as of today. One package contains enough fabric, thread and ribbons or rubber bands to make about 30 masks. Customers who apply for a package commit themselves to sew fabric face masks. They can keep five for themselves and their family and must return the remaining 25 free of charge to Colruyt Group Academy, which will distribute them among different health care institutions. To Colruyt Group Academy, which has been keeping its 11 training houses closed since the start of the corona crisis, it is a way to contribute to providing sufficient reusable face masks.
Tuesday, May 12, 2020
a{color:#008080;}
Colruyt Group Academy, which is known for its interesting workshops for customers and birthday parties for children, has been composing ready-to-make face mask sewing packages since the end of April. First, only Colruyt Group co-workers could apply for such a package. They could pick a package of 15 face masks for their own use, or a package of 50 destined for social services. Both formulas were a success. "We have been offering this possibility since the end of April and in less than one week more than 2,000 co-workers applied for a do-it-yourself face mask package", says Eric Vanophalvens, responsible for Colruyt Group Academy.
Free sewing packages available to customers
"This instant success got us thinking", Eric Vanophalvens continues. "We decided to make the formula accessible to customers as well. We joined forces with a few loyal partners of brands such as Balade, Elvea, Devos Lemmens, Jules Destrooper, Côte D'or, Tiense Suiker, Spa, Bru, Tempo and Sunlight. Thanks to them, we can now compose plenty of sewing packages."
As from today, people can apply for a sewing package for 30 fabric face masks at Colruyt Group Academy's website. The free package is sent to the customers' home. Colruyt Group Academy asks its customers to commit themselves to return 25 face masks for health care institutions. They can send them free of charge with a simple return sticker and they can keep the 5 remaining masks.
Colruyt Group Academy will distribute the face masks to different health care institutions. "At the end of April, we already made a first delivery of 200 face masks to non-profit organisation Schoonderhage in Pollare, a centre that welcomes and cares for people with a disability.”
Sharon Hietbrinck, manager of Schoonderhage, was very happy: “Thank you so much! This is another step forward to protect all our co-workers and residents." Eric Vanophalvens adds: ”Of course, we want to repeat this initiative for as many other care institutions as we can and we appeal to our customers who have a sewing machine to order a free package and to show their solidarity with the health care sector.”
With its partners, Colruyt Group Academy wants to distribute 5,000 packages among its customers for a total of 150,000 face masks, 125,000 of which are destined to social services. Moreover, in the past few weeks, many volunteers and Colruyt Group co-workers have been making face masks, which we also donated to several health care institutions.
Practical information
You can order a sewing package for face masks at https://www.colruytgroupacademy.be/nl/mondmaskers-maken
Each customer can order maximum 1 package (order 1 per address). One package contains enough fabric, thread, ribbons or rubber bands for 30 face masks.
Contact
For more information or pictures, you can contact Colruyt Group's press service at 0473 92 45 10 (NL) or 0473 82 27 15 (FR), or via [email protected].