Cape Town - A Cape Town businessman raised R25000, in 48-hours, to help feed children from disadvantaged communities who rely on school feeding schemes for their daily meals.
He did so after hearing the address by President Cyril Ramaphosa, calling for the closure of schools in the country to curb the spread of Covid-19.
Brad Stern, chief executive of Superiate, a boutique marketing consultancy and project management agency, was inspired to do something for pupils who depend on feeding schemes to survive, and who would have been left with nothing when schools closed.
Stern said that the reality of what more than 9million underprivileged children would have to go through, when schools closed and they could no longer access food, drove him to start an initiative to assist where he could.
“It is a heart-breaking reality that needs as much attention as possible. These children need help and so do the organisations that work with them - my mission was to provide help,” said Stern.
With the help of his brother, Stern designed and set-up a website, where people could donate towards the initiative, aimed at feeding millions of children, who depend on school feeding schemes.
The initiative, “Can With Purpose”, gained traction and Stern was able to raise R25000, in 48 hours. He then donated that to Afrika Tikkun, an organisation that has five centres in the country and works to provide nutritious meals, three times a day, to more than 9000 children, aged between 2 and 19, as well as support for their families.
Marketing manager at Afrika Tikkun Precious Nala said: “We will share the food and funds we received with our centres - four in Johannesburg and one in Cape Town, Mfuleni - to help them through this difficult time”.
Stern, who is no stranger to working with young people from disadvantaged communities, has partnered up with a few notable companies, like Ackermans, Pick n Pay and Boxer.
“I also want to challenge other corporations to do more than just ‘plan’ on assisting people who need help. We should be doing more, as companies that have the means.
“At a time like this, we should unite. No one saw this tragedy coming and it would help if people united,” said Stern.