RESCUING FOOD FILLING BELLIES
With almost 20 million people in South Africa going to sleep on an empty stomach every night, SA Harvest is on a mission to end hunger. However, they’re taking an innovative approach – one that also tackles food waste.
While many children have since returned to school now that lockdown is over, there was a large influx of new families into the Jackson Park community over the last two years, and the feeding programme now focuses on the children that could not be accommodated by the schools in the area.
HOT, NUTRITIOUS MEALS
A team of local volunteers from the Jackson Park church campus come in every morning to prepare the raw produce and cook the daily meals. “We cook hot meals using the vegetables, pap, and anything meaty we receive from SA Harvest. Then children are also given 2 Minute Noodle packs to take home
for lunch later in the day. On alternate days, we cook ForAfrika porridge for the kids, and send them home with 2 Minute Noodle packs,” says Sunshine Mathiso from Imagine Church.
Fridays are special days in the Jackson Park community when the children receive sweets or cooldrinks, sometimes a braai or a stew with meat, depending on what the church and SA Harvest are able to deliver.
“Apart from the daily meals, we distribute vegetable parcels to families in the community on a weekly basis,” says Sunshine. “Between 400 and 600 parcels are handed out from the produce received from SA Harvest each week. For several years, we have been partnering with ForAfrika (previously JAM) in supplying porridge to ECD centers in the community; we now also supplement this with fresh produce and other food items such as 2 Minute Noodles received from SA Harvest.”
Did you know that 10 million tons of food is wasted every year? In an effort to reduce that astonishing amount, and make sure that produce gets to where
it is desperately needed, SA Harvest rescues nutritious surplus food from farmers, manufacturers, retailers and other players in the food ecosystem. Using refrigerated vehicles, the produce is transported to beneficiaries who use it to create healthy, nutrient-rich meals that feed hungry people on a daily basis.
“Our beneficiaries do amazing work,” says CEO and founder of SA Harvest, Alan Browde. “They are the real heroes that SA Harvest takes pride in supporting, through the generosity of benefactors, food donors and partners.”
Filling the gap
Imagine Church is one of SA Harvest’s beneficiaries and runs a feeding scheme for the children of Jackson Park Informal Settlement. When lockdown happened in March 2020, a dire and pressing need became clear: children who were previously getting one solid meal a day – for many, their only meal – at school, were no longer receiving vital nourishment due to schools being closed.
The caring community of Imagine Church were anxious to step in so that they could continue feeding the children of Jackson Park, and so they started a feeding programme. Fate intervened and they were connected with SA Harvest, and since then have been able to serve a hot meal to the children in the community.
