6 minute read
FOOD GARDENS AND KITCHENS
WASTE NOT, SURPLUS FOOD
A corporate sponsor donates 739kg of food comprising condiments, pasta, cooking oil and canned food to FoodForward. WANTED FoodFoward SA is asking for more donations of surplus food to meet increasing demand, reports F oodForward SA is a nonprofit organisation that works with supply chains of retailers, wholesalers and farms to recover food that these businesses consider surplus and is destined for the rubbish bin. The it to old-age homes, after-school facilities, community creches, soup kitchens, shelters and skills development centres countrywide. FoodForward fund manager Deidre Adams says that since ramping up operations to meet FOODFOWARD SA USES A MULTIFACETED APPROACH CAIPHUS KGOSANA organisation collects and distributes this surplus the increased demand for the provision of daily TO ADDRESS HUNGER food to needy people daily. meals, the food it sources is not enough and the Before COVID-19 struck, the organisation organisation is forced to buy extra provisions at • Warehouse food-banking: bene ciary was feeding 255 000 people daily, but has since great cost. organisations go to their respective had to scale-up operations to feed 455 000 The organisation’s work is supported by warehouses once a month to collect people daily, due to the high demand brought donations from corporates, foundations, their food hampers. about the pandemic-related lockdown. trusts and individuals – both local and • FoodShare: connects bene ciary FoodForward SA sifts out good quality international. “Many of the large banks have organisations virtually to the nearest food from the surplus and, working with donated funds as part of their COVID-19 Pick n Pay or Food Lovers Market 1 000 beneficiary organisations, distributes contribution,” Adams says. where they can collect surplus food more frequently at food store level. • Mobile Rural Depot programme: CALL TO ACTION addresses rural food security. Through “We are issuing a call to action to retailers, wholesalers, and especially food manufacturers this programme, FoodForward SA and farmers to please donate surplus edibles to the organisation. We provide all our provides meals to just over 60 000 donors with Section 18a tax certificates and save them the costs of having to dump their people in rural communities via surplus food. By donating to us, they will also be assured that their food is being used to monthly food hampers. feed vulnerable people across the country,” says FoodForward SA’s Deirdre Adams. • Second Harvest: a programme whereby FoodForward SA connect with farmers and collects their surplus produce. About 50 per cent
FOREIGN MONEY GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED of all produce on farms is wasted, so the organisation provides an environmentally-friendly solution to A COVID-19 relief donation of R100-million from the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany has enabled the City of Cape Town to assist those in need during lockdown. “I am extremely grateful for the R100-million funding because I know just how many residents this is going to bene t,” Plato says. The funds will enable the city to provide • farmers by recovering their good quality surplus produce to feed the vulnerable. Large-scale feeding programmes: provide nutritious breakfast cereals
In September, the city announced staff and learners at early childhood and milk to children in creches, primary the donation made via the KfW German development centres and their families, and secondary schools, in partnership Development Bank, saying it would bolster its and residents involved in community with various corporates. COVID-19 humanitarian relief efforts. food gardens with 25 000 food vouchers FoodForward SA also runs a supply
Throughout lockdown, the city has been per month for three months. The funds chain youth internship programme that supporting some 200 soup kitchens. “We will also help to support soup kitchens provides unemployed graduates with have seen how devastating the impact of the in Hanover Park, Manenberg, Nyanga, SETA-accredited training in warehousing national lockdown has been on many of our Gugulethu and areas of Khayelitsha. and logistics. The organisation has residents who have lost jobs and are unable to “We are in this together. This is about warehouses in Cape Town, Port provide for their families. solidarity with the most affected to inspire Elizabeth, Durban, Rustenburg
“We have worked throughout the lockdown hope and give comfort. And it is about and Johannesburg. to support soup kitchens with equipment strengthening local communities and “However, we have a national and ingredients so that they can provide a those who care for their families, friends footprint and serve all nine provinces. warm meal to residents in need. However, we and neighbours. In the spirit of ubuntu, We distribute food using inter-branch are noticing that many of our residents still we want to contribute to the wave of transfers to the Northern Cape, Free need assistance with food,” says Dan Plato, solidarity,” explains German Ambassador State, Limpopo and Mpumalanga,” executive mayor. Martin Schäfer. says Adams.
Volunteers of the Ikemeleng Foundation.
THINKING BEYOND FOOD DONATIONS
Urban farmer Alex Woolfe has pitched the idea of a sustainable food garden to members of the Ikemeleng Foundation in Diepsloot. They are exploring how it can help the community to grow its own food and are discussing everything from soil management to irrigation schemes.
It’s 9am at the Diepsloot community hall and volunteers from the Ikemeleng Foundation are already hard at work peeling potatoes and carrots and dicing spinach in preparation for the lunchtime rush. Ikemeleng Foundation was started in
June this year by Percy Malepe who said he was tired of the poverty in Diepsloot and wanted to do something about it. So he and friends set up the foundation and partnered with the Diepsloot Youth Programme – a nonpro t organisation that works with schools and community organisations in the area – to start a soup kitchen. The kitchen feeds 350 people, especially those with chronic illnesses, substance abusers, vulnerable children and undocumented migrants, Monday to Friday. “I grew up in an impoverished environment with an unemployed single mother. We often didn’t know where our next meal would come from. I don’t want others to walk that path,” says Malepe, who chairs the foundation.
Woolfe was brought to the area by the Diepsloot Youth Programme (DYP) a nonprofit organisation he works with to develop school gardening projects. He has been tasked with designing a food garden for the nearby informal settlement.
The DYP was one of the beneficiaries of a generous donation made in April by the Douw
Ikemeleng Foundation feeds 350 people five days a week.
Kgomotso Mohale, the foundation’s treasurer, says while government was distributing food parcels in Diepsloot during the hard lockdown, they noticed that people without identity documents or passports and nyaope addicts were excluded.
Ikemeleng’s soup kitchen cooks especially for those who fall off the government radar.
“We also found a lot of sex workers, young women who sell their bodies for as little as R20 because they are desperate for food. Those are the people we’ve been able to assist,” she explains.
Steyn Family Trust. Along with the South African companies Steyn founded – Telesure Investment Holdings, incorporating Auto & General Insurance, 1st for Women Insurance, Dialdirect Insurance, Budget Insurance, 1Life and hippo.co.za – as well as Steyn City Properties and the Saxon Hotel, they pledged R320-million to assist in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact.
A further R200-million is being used to support feeding schemes in communities that surround Steyn City, north of Johannesburg.
Sophie Tlhabadira of the DYP says that starting food gardens is a way of thinking beyond food parcel donations. “We want something more sustainable, that’s why we have brought a farmer here. We are planning for at least 30 community members to plant
FOOD FOR THE NEEDY AND NEGLECTED
their own seeds by the end of December.
Sophy Tlhabadira of the Diepsloot Youth Programme says that her organisation supports seven other soup kitchens in the area, each feeding an average of 200 people per day. A number of corporates including Century Property Development, Douw Steyn’s Telesure Investment Holdings and the Steyn City Trust have contributed generously. Tlhabadira’s organisation partners with organisations such as Ikemeleng Foundation to make sure that food assistance reaches the right people.
