Edenred marks 10 years of volunteering through Ideal Day, the initiative that supports the growth of people, communities and a society without food waste.
In 2026, Ideal Day Romania brought together over 100 employees and over 100 children in mentoring activities, educational workshops and sustainable gastronomy, confirming the evolution of the program towards a coherent platform for social impact, under the concept “The Power of 10 – Growing the Future”.
In Bucharest, over 100 students from the sixth and seventh grades participated together with Edenred employees in Vision Board workshops, mentoring exercises in which each child builds their own board of aspirations, with a focus on self-confidence, direction and the courage to dream further. The mixed teams then planted over 1,000 seedlings, a gesture with strong symbolic value, and the seedlings remained with the children and the school, as a landmark of the day. Also in Bucharest, the teams cooked together from local ingredients, without food waste.
In Sfântu Gheorghe, Edenred volunteers prepared a community meal at the cauldron, together with the Regional Food Bank Brasov, and the food was then distributed to the children supported by SOS Children’s Villages Brasov.
“Year after year, Ideal Day has become a landmark day for the way we define ourselves as an organization. We have learned together that impact occurs when you are perseverant and when you build consistently, together with communities. In ten years, this consistency has translated into support for 41 organizations and thousands of hours of volunteering offered by our colleagues, but especially in relationships built and trust gained. Today, Ideal Day means mentoring, nutrition education and direct involvement in the training of the younger generations. Through each initiative, we contribute to a development model in which food is used responsibly, and communities grow sustainably”, said Lelia Mancaș, Director of Marketing, Communication and CSR – Edenred Romania.
A decade of growth, together with communities
Over ten years, Ideal Day has evolved in Romania from punctual volunteering actions – sanitation, construction, food donations – to an integrated social impact platform. The journey reflects a broader transformation in the way the company understands responsibility towards the communities in which it operates: it is no longer just about one volunteer day per year, but about a systematic commitment to education, sustainability and social cohesion.
The impact of this consistency is also visible in the figures accumulated around this initiative: in ten years of Ideal Day in Romania, 41 organizations have been supported exclusively through the actions of this day, and employees have contributed over 5,200 hours of volunteering – the equivalent of almost 2.5 years of work or, symbolically, almost two hours of involvement every day, for a decade. These milestones indicate not only the magnitude of the effort, but also its continuity.
Despite the clear progress, Romania remains among the European countries with the highest rate of food waste – thousands of tons of good food end up in the trash daily, while millions of Romanians live at risk of poverty. In this landscape, programs that link corporate volunteering to nutrition education and sustainable gastronomy are no longer a symbolic gesture, they are a necessity.
“In Romania, about 3.45 million tons of food are wasted annually, while over 5 million people are at risk of poverty or social exclusion. We intend to actively contribute to solving these serious problems. Partnerships like the one with Edenred help us take food where it makes a real difference,” said Vasile Costache, President of the Brasov Regional Food Bank.
It is no coincidence that the tenth edition of Ideal Day took place on June 18, the International Day of Sustainable Gastronomy, a framework that gives Edenred’s actions a relevance beyond the corporate perimeter. Through the global strategy Enrich connections. For good., Edenred has taken an active role in combating food waste, nutrition education and supporting vulnerable communities. Ideal Day is the local, concrete expression of this commitment.
If the first ten years have shown that corporate volunteering can be consistent, the next decade poses a more ambitious question: how far can impact go when a company not only reacts to the needs of the community, but systematically invests in them? Ideal Day 2026 could be a first answer.
About Edenred
Edenred is the global leader in Benefits & Engagement and Mobility. With more than 1 million client companies in 44 countries, the Edenred platform provides more than 60 million users with access to the services and products of more than 2 million partner merchants.
Edenred offers digital solutions dedicated to employees (meal vouchers, transport, gift cards, wellness, rewards and preferential offers), fleet managers (multi-energy solutions, including charging for electric vehicles, maintenance services, tolls and parking) and corporate payments (virtual cards).
Guided by the Group’s raison d’être, “Enrich connections. For good.”, these solutions improve the well-being and purchasing power of employees and simplify the lives of professional drivers. They promote access to healthier nutrition, more environmentally friendly products and more sustainable mobility. Finally, they increase the attractiveness and efficiency of companies and boost the labour market and local economies.
Edenred’s 12,000 employees are committed every day to transforming the world of work into a connected, safer, more efficient and more responsible ecosystem. In 2025, thanks to its unique technology platform, the Group generated a turnover of €49 billion, mainly through mobile apps, online platforms and cards.
Edenred is listed on the Euronext Paris stock exchange and is included in the indices: CAC Next 20, CAC Large 60, Euronext 100, Euronext Tech Leaders, FTSE4Good, DJSI Europe Index and DJSI World Index.