Ahead of World Hunger day next Tuesday, the Shoprite Group invited VOC News to tag along as they assessed the progress of a few of their hunger fighting initiatives in poor communities on the Cape Flats.

According to a website dedicated to the cause: starvation claims more lives than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined every year, with 821 million people who do not have enough to eat every day.

Shoprite CSI spokesperson Lunga Schoeman explained that as South Africa’s leading retailer they aim to give back to the communities that serve them. Siyabulela Primary School in Langa is one of two schools in the area that Shoprite helped expand their gardens and provides tools that help to maintain it.

“This is among several projects where the school(s) have helped take the support we give and add value, not only to the learners, but to the community as well. We want those who are not as privileged to at least have a meal,” he said.

The gardens contain vegetables such as spinach, cabbage, onions, potatoes, carrots, beet root, spring onion and corn. Gardeners care meticulously for their crops and the produce is used to provide meals for the students, who often come to school hungry.

Schoeman explained that the retailer avails tools such as seedlings, gardening equipment and fertilizer to 78 different institutions across the country.

“The garden(s) were here for a very long time, so we didn’t come and “bring the garden”. But we gave them tools to make it better, so a maximum number of people can benefit. And that has added value for us, to be able to have support to give to this community and have the right people that will be able to take (the support) and do something brilliant.”

Principal Masixole Guzana said that the freshly produced meals give the children a healthy meal which helps them academically and in sports. He commended the garden manager and his deputy, Victor Befile and Siyabulela ‘Siya’ for their dedication, as well as the ladies in the kitchen who prepare nutritious meals for the children.

Guzana pointed out that teaching agriculture at school could help combat South Africa’s rising poverty levels.

“We should by now know that agriculture is being introduced into the school curriculum. We are very excited about that and I think South Africa as a whole should be excited, considering there’s a high rate of poverty in our country. Agriculture can help the government alleviate poverty, because the children will learn (these) skills from a young age. It’s good that it’s introduced from a very age, I remember when I was on primary school, we learnt to maintain a garden. As a result we had a garden at home. So I hope it gets implemented sooner than later.”

Just a few roads away is Mokone Primary School, which has a larger garden. Gunzana’s sentiments were echoed by grade head Kholeka Mafenuka-Mhletywa who expressed that it helps provide struggling children with a purpose.

 

“We believe youth can benefit from agriculture as a subject. For example, we have what we call ‘slow learners’ who believe they can’t do anything, those we send to special schools because they can’t cope with the mainstream schooling. They benefit a lot from the garden because they are the ones who are responsible for (maintaining) the garden.”

She added that the agriculture subject should include farming with small animals such as chicken and goats: “(We want) things the learner can see because it is expensive to take them out to farms. At least if we have it here, we can outsource to other schools in the area.”

The grade head thanked Shoprite for putting up a fence because people would previously steal the crops out of desperation. She explained that the lack of employment has caused an alcohol problem within her community, which in turn affects the children.

“The challenge we face in our community is unemployment first that has a consequence of alcoholism. You can see the children come to the school sometimes and they are “traumatized,” exclaimed the teacher.

Mafenuka-Mhletywa said projects like this can be beneficial to the surrounding community.

“Mainly it’s feeding the school but if we have left then we can send it home with the teachers or learners who don’t have. We are so grateful for what has been done here and the support we get from Shoprite. They check up every month and have two delegates educating the learners, teachers and gardeners about gardening. We hope Shoprite will assist us in expanding so we can expand more and (serve) the community, so people from the community can come and work here.”

“World Hunger Day” is an initiative started by The Hunger Project which aims- not only to feed poor communities- but to highlight the contributing factors to hunger and poverty. These include issues surrounding decent work opportunities, health, education, social justice, the rights of women and girls, the environment and climate change.

Meanwhile, in the streets of Delft, Dorothy Hyster was awarded a Mobile Kitchen which boosts the feeding scheme she’s been running for 19 years. Schoeman said it’s about providing a meal to those who cannot afford it.

“Each of the 90 trucks provides food to a minimum of 1000 people each, throughout the country, every day. The trucks are made possible through our partners such as Albany, Knorr (among others). Each truck is fully fitted with all sorts of equipment to make sure there is no delay in getting the food to the people who need it the most, in the quickest possible time. Each truck goes to a base, gets all the ingredients and then has a team that makes the food and serves it to the communities.”

Dorothy expressed gratitude to Shoprite who has been assisting in feeding the community for nine years. She went on to thank Shoprite for their consistency and for deploying kind people to help her with serving the soup and bread. She emphasized that their contributions has fulfilled her desire to assist as many people as possible.

“I do this because I love the people, we are like a big family in Delft. Shoprite brings a pot of soup and dishes it out and (I must say) I appreciate the way they handle the people. Always so nicely.”

Her daughter, Roxanne, noted that people come from all over Delft. She explained that the high unemployment rate contributes to the large number of people who rely on Dorothy for a meal twice a week.

“Shoprite comes and brings ingredients once a month, but (my mom) makes soup for the kids as well so they can at least have something to eat after school. That comes out of her own pocket. But it’s her passion and one day if she leaves this earth it’s a passion I will take over.”

Schoeman encouraged each person to do their bit in caring for those less fortunate, with World Hunger Day’s theme this year being “sustainability”.

“The purpose of this day is to raise awareness that while many of us are privileged in so many ways, there are still people in our country, in our communities, in our streets, who go to bed hungry. Be good neighbours in your suburbs and townships. Let’s all do our bit to see to it that those who are hungry are fed and get something.”

VOC