Pick.A.Roo jons forces with Mayani

“We partnered up with Mayani because our goal and initiatives are aligned when it comes to promoting local farmers and offering local organic produce. Our mission is to support local businesses and help expand their e-channels thru our app.” ~Crystabelle Anne Gonzalez, the Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Pick.A.Roo

Riding on the wave of an ultra fast-growing Internet economy in the Philippines, the Megaworld-backed lifestyle delivery app Pick.A.Roo creates a formidable team-up with leading agriculture technology platform Mayani in their shared bid of providing on-demand more organic produce at fresher quality to the health-conscious market.

Gonzalez further remarked that they want their customers to discover a new way of eating healthy through a wide range of organic alternatives, as well as a healthy category for customers to purchase from the comfort of their homes.

Mayani, who has developed a grassroots network of over 72,300 smallholder farmers from Batanes to Batangas, is a leader in the farm-to-table space with a wide multi-category agri-assortment, including its core organic produce segment. Backed by Silicon Valley venture firm AgFunder and Asian family conglomerates, it has also secured key partnerships with the likes of the Department of Trade & Industry to bridge rural farmers to the urban market – a feat that includes its last-mile channel collaboration with Pick.A.Roo.

“We are very bullish in our outlook for on-demand fresh finds, especially organic ones. This strategic alliance ups our game even more as we take on that growing need of the market for locally-grown food amidst a fast-lifestyle.” ~Josef Amarra, Mayani’s Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer

The team-up combines these forerunners’ strengths not just of operational capability from harvest to delivery, but also of their extensive marketing channels for special promos bringing delight to the moms, health buffs, home kitchen leaders. A 20% offer is up until November 19 with next-day organic finds delivery available from Mayani via the Pick.A.Roo app.

According to Pick.A.Roo, their November this year boasts of over 1,300 best of the best and most loved food, shop, and grocery brands with over 200,000 SKUs to choose from. They now have the longest delivery coverage covering 21 cities across NCR, Cavite, Batangas, Pampanga and many more.

Caritas Manila taps tech for good platforms Mayani, GrabPay to foster online giving for underprivileged youth

“For the past 60 years, Caritas Manila has been actively shaping total human development and assisting the needs of the unfortunate members of our society through mission-driven partnerships. This project firmly complements our Youth Servant Leadership & Education Program (YSLEP), while concurrently extending our alleviation outcomes to our local farmers by sourcing the donated food packs from them.” ~Fr. Anton Pascual, Executive Director of Caritas Manila

(Mayani) Tuloy Aral with Caritas  Manila, Grab, Pilipinas Shell Foundation

In the context of the ongoing pandemic that has brought more families deeper into poverty, digital platforms have been repurposed to leverage their reach and scalable capacities to soften the economic downturn’s impact on the poor and the vulnerable.

Carrying this impact thrust, Caritas Manila – the lead social service ministry of the Catholic Church in the Philippines – is co-launching the Tuloy Aral Project to support the food needs of over 5,000 youth scholars from the poorest communities in the country, while supporting the livelihood of rural smallholder farmers through technology. 

Also spearheading the project is GrabPay, the leading e-wallet of super-app Grab, and Mayani, an impact-driven ag-ecommerce platform with over 28,000 smallholder farmers, including the Pililia farmers of the Pilipinas Shell Foundation, Inc (PSFI).

YSLEP, which covers the children of the displaced workers due to the pandemic, aims to put them through college and technical vocation education, while giving them necessary means and basic support like food as they complete their schooling.

“While technology is the core enabling engine for mobilizing broad online support for Tuloy Aral, its impact components are very social and two-fold: helping farmers at the grassroots and supporting the basic nourishment needs of the youth scholars. We are glad to play a fundamental role in making this happen, especially now when it matters the most.” ~JT Solis and Atty. Ron Dime, the Co-Founders of Mayani, whose farm-to-table play has been revolutionizing the agricultural supply in the country

Mayani, who now powers the fresh produce value chain of the likes of Shell, Robinsons, and Waltermart, among others, is a long-standing partner of GrabPay with the latter serving as it’s e-wallet of choice in the Mayani ag-ecommerce site. Their existing collaborations include the ongoing Online National Food Fair for Cordillera farmers with the backing of the Department of Trade and Industry.

Grab will be signal boosting Tuloy Aral via its mobile app starting this August leading to the Mayani ag-ecommerce site with various curated vegetable, fruit, and rice boxes that the market can choose from and donate. Mayani will reinforce the online traction-building for the project by employing all its digital channels as well as key billboard sites across Metro Manila with HDI Adventures, its ad-tech lead partner.

The fresh produce in each box will then be harvested by farmers in Pililia, Rizal under PSFI’s Integrated Farming Bio-Systems program, consolidated by Mayani, and then delivered to Caritas Manila for eventual distribution.