El Mesón Sandwiches grants $43K in scholarships
Héctor Jiménez, marketing director of El Mesón Sandwiches discusses the scholarship program results.
Some 54 students from the University of Puerto Rico system received the El Mesón Sandwiches Scholarship, awarded by the Puerto Rican food chain to support university students with limited financial resources and high academic achievement.
Each student received an $800 scholarship — for a total of $43,200 — which were handed out June 30, during a ceremony at Café Jardín, located at the UPR’s Botanical Garden in Río Piedras.
“I’m proud that El Mesón Sandwiches can collaborate with the education of these 50 students from the UPR through the ‘Combos Universitarios’ promotion,” said Felipe Pérez-Grajales, president of El Mesón Sandwiches.
“Cause marketing works as long as the benefiting entities provide support and the UPR achieved extraordinary results,” he said. “Congratulations to the scholarship recipients and all those who, in one way or another, supported this initiative.”
Funding for the scholarships was raised through the “Combos Universitarios” promotion, which took place March 28-July 31, 2016. As part of the initiative, El Mesón Sandwiches contributed 25 cents of every “Combo Universitario” sold to fund scholarships from universities affiliated to the Intercollegiate Athletic League. Buyers of these offers chose the college to which they would donate the .25 cents from each combo sold.
During the promotion period, the Development Office and UPR Alumni mobilized students, staff, faculty and alumni of the 11 units of the university system, to support fundraising efforts for scholarships.
“This is the first fundraising initiative between the UPR, private enterprise, the university community, and our alumni,” said Gretchen Krans, director of the UPR Alumni Development Office.
In total, the promotional effort collected $73,600, and El Mesón confirmed that the remaining $30,400 would be split between the General Student Councils of the UPR’s 11 units.
