History of the BayWa Foundation

A total of 63 projects in 11 countries - this is the balance of 20 years of the BayWa Foundation.

An environmental house, seed propagation in Malawi, equipment for Thai schools, biogas plants in Tanzania, school gardens in Germany, support for young Zambian mothers, the Nutrition Compass for Bavarian primary schools - all these and many other projects have been created by the BayWa Foundation over the last 20 years. Together, it has been possible to promote nutritional knowledge among children and help people to help themselves on an international level.

“20 years of nutrition, education and renewable energy, 20 years of promoting children in their development, 20 years of giving people a future - the BayWa Foundation has brought a smile to many people's faces thanks to the great support of numerous sponsors and partners.”
(Maria Thon, Managing Director)  

The project "Planting vegetables. Harvesting health." has been expanded: The textbook and activity book “The Nutrition Compass” teaches primary school pupils about the world of nutrients and what the body needs for a healthy diet. The workbook can be integrated into everyday school life and will be distributed to Bavarian primary schools from 2018.

The project “Planting vegetables. Harvesting health.” has grown: The App "Essen+Wissen" (Eating+Knowledge) supports parents in teaching about nutrition. Nutritional knowledge, recipes, tips on gardening and exercise can be integrated into the family’s day and are fun for young and old alike.

Meaningful farming - learning to grow vegetables - harvesting yourself: The farming school in Holzkirchen aims to raise the awareness and appreciation of healthy nutrition among children and gives lessons on the organic farm.

The project "School fruit in Baden-Württemberg" is working for more fruit at primary schools. Schools in Baden-Württemberg are supplied with fresh fruit on a daily basis. The BayWa Foundation supports the project.

In the SOS Children's Village in Lusaka, the BayWa Foundation enables young mothers in distress to access training, while providing comprehensive care for their children during the training period.

Learn more about the training project

To make it easier for refugee children to enter mainstream schooling, they are first taught in transitional classes. In these classes, language barriers are overcome and the children are slowly introduced to the German school system. The BayWa Foundation supports such transitional classes at primary schools in Munich.

Education against poverty: The BayWa Foundation supports the “Go for Gold – Education to Employment” programme in South Africa. Young South Africans are assigned a mentor during and after their school years who prepares them for the successful completion of their studies.

Learn more about Go for Gold

The BayWa Foundation is committed to the integration of refugees: In Hammelburg, BayWa AG provided the government with a building for housing refugees. The BayWa Foundation also supported language, integration and career entry courses for the refugees. In Tuntenhausen near Rosenheim, the foundation also built raised beds with two Syrian families. Both groups got to know each other’s food culture, the Bavarian and the Syrian.

Learn more about our commitment to integration

The BayWa Foundation is part of the Bildungsnetzwerk München (Munich Training Network) and the Soziales Netzwerk München (Munich Social Network). Together with educational foundations and other partners, the BayWa Foundation is committed to promoting education in Munich. The BiNet Munich wants to network and mediate to help ensure that needs are recognised at an early stage and the best solution can be found cooperatively.

Learn more about the BiNET and SoNET

In order to find out what effect an own school garden has on primary school pupils, the TU Munich and the BayWa Foundation have been researching the effectiveness of the project "Planting Vegetables. Harvesting health.” over a period of 3 years.

Learn more about the impact study

The MAVUNO Girls Secondary School in Kagera, Tanzania, could not have opened without an adequate learning laboratory for the schoolgirls. For this reason, the BayWa Foundation supported the school and provided the funds for the construction of a school laboratory and some teaching materials. As part of the BayWa Foundation's biogas project in Tanzania, the school also received a biogas plant that will teach them everything they need to know in their laboratory.

Thanks to the support of the BayWa Foundation, the “Schlaumeier-Verein e.V.”, an institution supporting the interests of children that offers full day care, founded the “language workshop”. The association offers language workshops to 1st to 6th year children from the primary and secondary school in Massing. In small groups, the children's vocabulary and listening comprehension is promoted, independent language skills are developed, the courage to speak is encouraged and their self-esteem is improved.

The BayWa Foundation supported the project “Bavaria tastes good.” co-organised by the DEHOGA Bayern. Young people got to know a restaurant and a food producer. They were able to experience food culture, got to know local foods, cooked together and presented their meals to the guests.

Students at the elementary and middle school in Bechhofen were taught about the subject of renewable energy throughout the entire school year. And then the time had come: Together with students from the Technical University of Munich and the BayWa Foundation, they set up their own wind turbine in the schoolyard. The wind turbine now produces enough energy for a pump and a lighting system in the school.  

Learn more about the project

The BayWa Foundation awards a scholarship for a postgraduate student studying agriculture, horticulture and fruit growing in New Zealand.

To this day, the BayWa Foundation supports the provision of lunchtime supervision at the Special Needs Support Centre (SNSC) on the Innsbrucker Ring in Munich.

The project “Denkbar Schulfrühstück” organised by the Bavarian Teachers' Association provides a breakfast for all schools in Bavaria. The BayWa Foundation supports them in doing so for schools in Munich. The project encourages school children to take a positive approach to nutrition and promotes social behaviour.

The BayWa Foundation supported an agricultural cooperative set up by the "Africa Amini Alama" organisation. African farmers received training to improve their farms.

The "Antenne-Bayern-hilft” house was built in Buchloe (Allgäu) with the aim of offering deprived children and young people space for positive experiences. The BayWa Foundation took part in this project with a vegetable garden and a communal kitchen.

Talent needs to be nurtured so that it can flourish. However, if talented students come from poorer backgrounds, the financial hurdle is often insurmountable. For this reason, the BayWa Foundation paid the tuition fees for three particularly talented women from e.g. Sri Lanka so that they could complete an international Master's programme at the TU Munich.

A successful project begins: The BayWa Foundation equips schools with vegetable beds and cooks healthy snacks together with the children from the vegetables they have harvested themselves. The students are able to gain active experience in planting, tending and harvesting vegetables and thus learn about the importance of healthy nutrition and agriculture.

Learn more about "Planting vegetables. Harvesting health.”

The BayWa Foundation supports Campus for Change: The Munich-based student initiative is committed to social projects worldwide and at the same time offers students a creative platform to realise projects and to make a difference together.

Learn more about Campus for Change

The BayWa Foundation was one of 14 founding patrons in setting up the Museum of Man and Nature in Munich. In this museum, visitors can experience the fascination of nature and the interaction with people.

The project “Lernort Bauernhof” (Learning Farm) enables children and young people to gain experience in agriculture and horticulture. The aim is to improve their knowledge of the origin and processing of foodstuffs.

The BayWa Foundation had a small irrigation system installed for teaching and research activities at the agricultural faculty of the Catholic University of Mozambique in Cuamba. The system is connected to a photovoltaic plant and is therefore operated with renewable energy.

The BayWa Foundation has been committed to the Germany Scholarship programme since it started in 2011. It currently awards 100 scholarships annually to students of the Technical University of Munich, the Weihenstephan-Triesdorf University of Applied Sciences, the University of Hohenheim and the Nürtingen-Geislingen University. The scholarship enables young talents to become involved in society and build a network.

Learn more about BayWa scholarships

The Tillmann’s children and youth home in Munich is a new home for children and adolescents who have had a difficult life. These children need special care and support for their development. This is why the BayWa Foundation has been helping with educational and experience projects, such as tutoring, ski courses, rafting or Christmas activities since 2011.

Learn more about the Tillmann’s children and youth home

For the "Zentrum für Umwelt und Kultur Benediktbeuern e.V." (Centre for the Environment and Culture), the BayWa Foundation is building a nature sound path as an extension to the adventure trail in order to bring children closer to nature and its special features.

18 children created a traditional cottage garden at the cultural centre for livery in Holzhausen. This does not only represent real tradition and the desire for regional nature but also the wish to explain children that a radish has to grow slowly before it can be eaten on bread and butter.

The BayWa Foundation has taken over the school sponsorship of the Special Needs Support Centre Munich South-East, Neuperlach (SNSC). It aims to encourage and support children with learning and speech difficulties and social and emotional problems in their personal development.

Learn more about the school sponsorship

Thanks to the BayWa Foundation's support, the Lebenshilfe München e.V. association is able to offer educational projects for persons with mental disabilities in Munich.

In cooperation with the Peter Maffay Foundation, the BayWa Foundation opened an adventure farm in the Romanian village of Radeln. Traumatised children are helped there through recreation in nature and contact with animals.

It marked the beginning of a wonderful friendship: In 2010, the BayWa Foundation first began providing children with breakfast every day at the Special Needs Support Centre (SNSC) on the Gerhart-Hauptmann-Ring in Munich. This later led to the school sponsorship with the SNSC and numerous other activities on site.

Learn more about our school sponsorship

The BayWa Foundation is supporting the renovation of the Baan Nongsanow School and the Wat Ladsing School in Thailand. The school building was extended, new classrooms were built and a vegetable bed was planted. Furthermore, the BayWa Foundation also provided three additional schools in the north of Thailand with teaching materials, additional teachers and agricultural land at the schools.

The BayWa Foundation supported the expansion of the Samanaleya school in Sri Lanka and thus created space for about 200 more students.

In cooperation with the German Engineers Without Borders association, the BayWa Foundation began building biogas plants in 2009. The approach to the project is holistic and the benefits are far-reaching: the environment is protected, people's health is protected by avoiding smoke pollution and jobs are created. The biogas substrate is also used as a fertilizer and improves soil fertility, which in turn increases the region's crop yields.  

Learn more about the biogas project in Tanzania

Together with the Missionary Benedictines of the Münsterschwarzach Abbey, the BayWa Foundation supported an aid project in Mvimwa, Tanzania: new accommodation was built there for 50 pupils.

In Malawi konnten auf den Feldern Solarpumpen installiert werden: So gelangt das Wasser leichter auf die Felder und muss von den Feldarbeitern nicht mühsam von der Wasserstelle zum Feld gebracht werden. Dank der Photovoltaik-betriebenen Pumpe kann so durch erneuerbare Energie die Arbeit vor Ort erleichtert und die Nahrungsmittelversorgung verbessert werden.

Heavy rainfall destroyed much of the corn crop in the 2003/2004 agricultural season. As a result, the country suffered from hunger because corn is the staple food of the Malawians. Alternative crops had to be produced: The BayWa Foundation, together with World Vision Malawi, therefore trained 130 farmers to become seed propagators for sorghum, millet, sweet potatoes and manioc.

The BayWa Foundation's first major project was the construction of an environmental house at Obergrashof. In this environmental house, school classes can learn what agriculture is and where the food comes from; it also offers them shelter in bad weather. The project is still supported by the BayWa Foundation today.

Learn more about the Obergrashof environmental station

The BayWa Foundation was established to mark the 75th anniversary of BayWa AG. The BayWa Group is a European trading and service company with subsidiaries, shareholdings and co-operations at home and abroad. With the BayWa Foundation, BayWa is contributing its share to social and ecological responsibility. The BayWa Foundation pursues exclusively and directly charitable purposes.

Our motivation