Cape Town - In support of World Food Day over the weekend, FoodForward SA hosted a food packaging event at their depot in Epping Industrial to launch their Household Food Security Programme.
This is to further reduce hunger in South Africa by ensuring nutritious food directly reaches the homes of those who need it most.
The programme identifies vulnerable households through partnerships with local non-profit organisations, whose social workers, nurses, dietitians and other health care workers conduct assessments and visits to pick out households where food parcels could be delivered directly.
FoodForward SA managing director Andy du Plessis said the Household Food Security Programme would address the huge hunger crisis in the country, with a particular focus on children suffering from malnutrition, pregnant and nursing mothers, orphans and other vulnerable children, child-headed households and chronic patients.
“South Africa has a huge hunger crisis, and it’s getting worse. Around 50% of people can’t afford to buy basic food groceries and there are already around 30 million people in South Africa who are either food insecure or at risk,” said Du Plessis.
Du Plessis said the programme was affordable and sustainable because the food parcels were packed with quality donated surplus food, non-food groceries and supplemented by procured groceries.
The managing director said this initiative was made possible by partner donors such as OneFarm Share, Premier FMCG, Tiger Brands, Feed The Nation Foundation, Nestle, Massmart and Coronation Fund Managers.
Each food parcel contained groceries worth around R500 and included items such as maize meal, rice, spaghetti, pasta, tinned food, soup mix, lentils, beans, peanut butter, sugar, cooking oil, fruit and vegetables.
Du Plessis said nutritious food for all was essential because healthier people were less susceptible to illnesses and more likely to look for work, which meant improving access to safe and nutritious food for vulnerable households was critical for economic growth and social development in the face of poverty and unemployment.
Coronation marketing group head Wendy Bergsteedt said: “Our financial contribution since the onset of the pandemic, has significantly helped the operational efforts of FoodForward SA to make meals available to over 700 000 people daily at a cost of 85c per meal.
“Our donation enabled FoodForward SA to rapidly scale resources and critical infrastructure to alleviate the hunger faced by vulnerable communities in our country, and assisted in scaling the newly-launched Household Food Security Programme.”