Since 1999, Stanfilco and Dolefil have been active partners in the Adopt-a-School program through their partnership with the Kasilak Development Foundation and the Mahintana Foundation and under agreement with the Department of Education (DepEd).

The Adopt-a-School program allows business groups, NGO's and civil society groups to adopt any public school of their choice anywhere in the country.  Donors provide each adopted school with the necessary support and resource mobilization in many areas, including infrastructure, facilities support, teaching and skill development, monitoring and evaluation, learning support, providing computer and science laboratory equipment, as well as food and nutrition.  The program presently covers over 40 elementary schools.

In addition to the two divisions’ joint efforts to support adopted schools, teachers and pupils, Stanfilco recently completed the distribution of 7,200 Science, English and Math textbooks to 40 public schools throughout Mindanao.  This was the second large-scale book donation supported by the Company since 2005. 

In the past, book donations were limited to only one subject per year and a large part of support from the Company came to adopted schools in the form of Pinoy educational video programs donated in 2004 and 2005, including television sets and video players, library materials and laboratory equipment. 

In 2005, a few adjustments were made to the community assistance program and Dole expanded the range of textbooks donated to cover not one, but three main elementary school subjects.  Almost 9,000 books were distributed in 2005.  This action’s importance is even further illustrated by looking at the raw data, which puts the textbook to pupil ratio in the Philippines at 1:4. 

The 2006 book donation season kicked off on July 24th in adopted schools in Maragusan, ComVal Province and ended on September 28th at an adopted school in Tamayong, Calinan, Davao City.

The Kasilak Foundation’s Executive Director said that “Stanfilco’s donated books will make learning more appealing to students since they are more graphic, of a higher standard and fully compliant with the DepEd's Revised Basic Education Curriculum (RBEC)”.

Furthermore, for the past 5 school years, Dole has established mini-libraries in each adopted school by funding book purchases and through book donation drives, including a drive at the Dole headquarters in the U.S., which yielded 17 crates full of books suitable for pupils in grades 1 and 2.  The books collected in the drive were distributed to Company-adopted schools in three regions. 

The mission of the Adopt-a-School program is to foster academically skilled students who possess the values of integrity and love for work.  The primary beneficiaries of Dole’s assistance are young learners in areas where Dole has operations in the Philippines and where dilapidated libraries, crowded classrooms, poorly equipped schools or poorly trained teachers have been identified. 

In addition to material and learning-tool support, the program focuses on enhancing the knowledge and skills of teachers by providing them with extensive training.  Since 2001, over 60 courses have been conducted ranging from basic computer training, strategic planning, speech improvement, "7 Habits of Effective People”, teaching techniques, and team action planning.
In order to ensure the program’s success, Dole also puts a lot of emphasis on parent participation, teaching employees how to help their children succeed in school.