Social Responsibility

Happy Children

Based on our experiences and observations in the past 72 years, we know that supporting children will make a great difference in their futures, and therefore we focus on children in our Social Responsibility projects. We aim to open a window for children with each and every project, from arts to sports.

As a producer of biscuits and chocolates, we have been with many generations since their childhood. We have known them closely, we see their needs, and we care about them. We are happy to be involved in projects that contribute their development, to be supporting them for their futures; we are happy about their happiness.

We share the joy of reaching 2.5 million children in Türkiye with our activities in sports, arts and culture, and education since 2007.

Over nine years, we celebrated the holidays of 1.1 million children, nurtured their imagination, and invested in the future.

Ülker Children’s Film Festival

The Ülker Children’s Film Festival was launched in 2008 as a gift to children on April 23, National Sovereignty and Children’s Day, to help develop their creativity through cinema.

With the Festival, which has taken place on the same day in all corners of Türkiye for the past nine years, we have reached around 1.1 million children. We have thus provided an opportunity to meet the “silver screen” for those children who were unable for various reasons to attend movies. Our company executives attended premieres in cities including Mardin, Van, Kars, Artvin, Edirne, and Denizli, and watched the films with the children, sharing their joy and happiness.

To date, approximately 1.1 million children from across Türkiye have participated in the Ülker Children’s Film Festival.

Ülker Children’s Art Workshop

We believe that art plays a prominent role in children’s capacity to dream and, more important, in giving children the courage to realize their dreams. At Ülker, we know that one of the roads to happiness is through the arts, and we support and invest in projects that introduce children to art at a young age. In this regard, we have established the Ülker Children’s Art Workshop to encourage children to engage with art at a young age, for them to develop an understanding of aesthetics, and to turn children into art lovers. In addition to leading art platforms such as Contemporary İstanbul and Art International, our Workshop also hosts children at exhibitions supported by Yıldız Holding, such as the Burhan Doğançay Retrospective, as well as in other cities where the Ülker Children’s Film Festival is organized. We hope to reach more children with even better content in the future with the Art Workshop, which has introduced arts to around 16,000 children since its establishment in 2011.

Balanced Diet Project

Creating the most comprehensive and sustainable nutrition education program in Türkiye, the Sabri Ülker Foundation reaches out to children with the Balanced Diet Project, in order that they may comprehend the importance of a balanced diet from school age.

As part of the Balanced Diet Project, organized in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, the Sabri Ülker Foundation provided training in balanced nutrition to one million primary school students between the ages of 8-11, in 10 cities in Türkiye.

Entering its sixth year in the 2016-2017 academic session, the Project, which now includes preschool and first year students in addition to 2nd, 3rd and 4th graders, reached around 1.5 million students and parents.

The project creates awareness about balanced nutrition among parents as well as children. In addition to the mobile application iGrow, which tracks the development of children, the Foundation continues its awareness and communication activities for parents with Tam Zamanında Mutfağı (a series of videos that contain balanced food recipes), prepared to promote healthy kitchens and a healthy future.

As part of the Ülker Football Villages project, the Sabri Ülker Foundation visits villages to discuss the importance of balanced nutrition with young athletes.

Sports Projects

As Ülker, with our continuing collaborations, we believe we have contributed to the proliferation of brands that support the sports world.

The Ülker Football for Children Project is the leading social responsibility Project contributing to the multi-dimensional development of children through trainings it offers in sports and other areas. The most important leg of the project is the TFF-Ülker Football Villages. Sixty-Five Football Villages were organized in 25 cities over nine years for talented children coming from across the country. Children, who are educated in diverse subjects such as chess, balanced nutrition, creative drama, environmental awareness, personal hygiene, first aid and art, have fun, learn and play football at the same time.

The most talented and the highest performing children are brought together at the Elit Football Villages by Ülker. As talented children between the ages of 12 and 13 are trained by the national team trainers for a period of one week, they acquire advanced football training and discover the spirit of fellowship, sportsmanship and solidarity -- qualities that are at the heart of football. Today, many children who were trained at the Football Villages play for Professional football clubs and national teams. Three more projects were added to the Sports for Children program by Ülker this year: Football Schools during summer months; the U13 İstanbul School League organized with the participation of 380 schools from the 38 districts of İstanbul; and the University-School Collaboration. Since 2007, we have reached more than 330 thousand children with these projects, organized in collaboration with the related federations.