La Gasol Foundation, project of the brothers Pau and Marc Gasol, and the IFA Group, the leader in surface distribution in the southern European market, have renewed their strategic agreement until 2026. The entity of the legends of Spanish basketball, whose mission is to prevent childhood obesity, reinforces its relationship with IFA by continuing to promote healthy lifestyle habits in the population and especially among the little ones.
The press event held in Madrid, which included the participation of Pau Gasol, president of the Gasol Foundation; and Juan Manuel Morales general director of Grupo IFA, has served to announce the action plan that gives continuity to its relationship as a Global Ally, which is based on shared values. Thus, in the case of Grupo IFA, said commitment to health is part of its own business model, whose hallmark is fresh produce, which promotes a balanced diet as one of the fundamental pillars of its strategy. For its part, the Gasol Foundation promotes a multisectoral approach to childhood obesity, given the complexity of this pandemic of multicausal origin, which today represents the greatest public health challenge that children face.
Projected Within a two-year framework, the action plan of the new agreement contemplates different actions. Specifically, one of the key activations is the development of a strategy aimed at enhancing and sizing the role currently played by the supermarkets associated with the Group as health promotion centers, especially among Spanish families.
In this sense, the great reach and capillarity of the distribution chains that are part of the IFA Group – it has a commercial area of more than 4 million square meters in its 6,345 located in Spain – makes them the ideal environment to promote healthy habits. In fact, this role in promoting health is already visible and, among other aspects, it is notable that more than 80% of the Group’s store customers walk to them, thus promoting an active lifestyle. Likewise, it is especially relevant that one in four Grupo IFA establishments is located in municipalities with less than 10,000 inhabitants because, thanks to this, it is possible to spread these healthy behaviors to the most remote corners of emptied Spain.
So with this For this purpose, the Research and Programs team of the Gasol Foundation will launch a study that will provide insight into health promotion actions that are already being implemented in the Group’s supermarkets, and identify future initiatives that allow advancing and consolidating these healthy environments. As an example, the first action that will be part of this project will be the launch of the Gasol Foundation’s Healthy Breakfast and Snacks Plan, which will be announced through the IFA Group supermarkets starting in September 2024.
On the other hand, and online With the pedagogical work of the Foundation, the alliance also materializes in the definition and execution of a training plan on habits healthy products intended for IFA Group professionals and their associates. Specifically, the program will address the four pillars of a healthy lifestyle that the Gasol Foundation integrates into its holistic approach according to scientific evidence: diet, physical activity, sleep and emotional well-being.
We continue with the same determination and will to reverse the silent epidemic of childhood obesity through the promotion of healthy lifestyle habits in childhood.
“After almost 10 years of collaboration with Grupo IFA in favor of children’s health, we continue with the same determination and will to reverse the epidemic of childhood obesity through the promotion of healthy lifestyle habits in childhood,” commented Pau Gasol, president of the Gasol Foundation. “Now is the time to take our collaboration a step further, and take advantage of the great reach of Grupo IFA’s network of associates, to make it easier for many more families to have the possibility of following a healthy lifestyle, regardless of their social and economic conditions.”
For his part, Juan Manuel Morales, general director of Grupo IFA, highlighted in his speech that “the Group’s sustainability policies in social matters have always been oriented towards the promotion of healthy lifestyle habits by encouraging sports and a balanced diet. Consequently, the union with the Gasol Foundation is born from the firm conviction of the need to be promoters of a healthy lifestyle.” To which he adds, “our role as healthy allies, in addition to contributing to the projects that launches the Gasol Foundation, multiplies our capabilities as agents of change while remaining faithful to our business model. A unique regional model in Europe that, according to the latest consolidated data for the year 2022, makes it possible for us to have reached a global turnover of more than 36,000 million euros and, in the specific case of Spain, we have contributed 10,000 million euros to the national GDP. (the equivalent of 0.8%) in addition to generating 90,640 jobs.
Our role as healthy allies, in addition to contributing to the projects launched by the Gasol Foundation, multiplies our capabilities as agents of change
This plan arises from scientific evidence generated from new data extracted fromhe PASOS 2022 study by the Gasol Foundation, in which Grupo IFA collaborates as a Global Ally, and which have been presented at the event held at the press conference.
Specifically, the results of this analysis influence the need to promote healthy habits among the child population. Thus, the study provides revealing data such as, for example, the fact that only 2 out of every 5 boys and girls (36.9% of the child and adolescent population) in Spain it reaches an optimal level of adherence to the Mediterranean diet. Along these lines, the low percentage of the population that consumes vegetables stands out: only 8.2% reach the recommendation of eating vegetables 2 or more times a day. Regarding fresh fruit, only 31.5% of children and adolescents reach the intake recommendation (3 or more servings per day).
Thus, there is significant room for improvement in terms of the consumption of fresh foods, typical of the Mediterranean diet. In this sense, Grupo IFA is a perfect ally to encourage consumption as the quality of its fresh products is one of the pillars of its business model. In fact, these account for close to half of the Group’s turnover.
