Dear Friends
To commemorate World Food Day this year, FoodBank South Africa (FBSA) in association with Samsung held a photographic competition. The theme of World Food Day this year is "United Against Hunger", and in keeping with this theme we invited the public to submit photographs that best depict efforts to unite against hunger in South Africa.
The competition was a great success! Entries came in from far and wide and we were blown away by the creativity and calibre of entrants. The winning photograph, As Good As You Can Be, was taken by Ziphozonke Lushaba, who wins a Samsung NX10 valued at R8000. Well done, Ziphozonke, and a huge thank you to Samsung for uniting with FoodBank in the fight against hunger and malnutrition.
Not only is food the most fundamental need, it's also a basic human right enshrined in our Bill of Rights. Yet almost three million households (that's about 12 million people) are "food insecure" - in other words, don't know where their next meal is coming from. Hunger and malnutrition are crippling conditions. Hungry malnourished children are robbed of the chance to reach their full potential as healthy, productive, creative people. Hungry adults can't work or even seek work and hungry patients can't take medication to fight illness. Hunger robs, steals and destroys lives.
At FBSA, we believe that by putting food first, we have a far better chance of addressing the most pressing socio-economic challenges facing our nation.
FBSA is making great strides in the fight against hunger in our country. This week we launched a FoodBank community depot in Tshwane in collaboration with the City of Tshwane and the Progressive Women's Movement of South Africa (PWMSA). FBSA procured 15 tons of food which will be distributed through the community depot by the Progressive Women's Movement of SA. The City of Tshwane has committed to financially supporting this initiative to continue the procurement of core nutritious food for the city's vulnerable population.
Milestones like the ones we celebrated this week are for sharing with friends. One special friend who would have been with us this week is the late Bob Forney, the founding president and CEO of the Global FoodBanking Network (GFN). Bob died suddenly in August after a knee operation. When the GFN's board met in Cape Town this week, Bob's friends and supporters gathered to honour him and "the force of nature" that was Bob.
Though he wasn't present in the flesh, his spirit was with us. Bob was passionate and big hearted; a man of great faith - or "gate-crashing faith" as his friend Sadi Luka put it. Because of that faith, Bob was unstoppable. He believed nothing was impossible. Chris Rebstock, the GFN's interim president and acting CEO, recalls fondly how Bob would never take "no" for an answer. "He would say: yes means yes, maybe means yes and no means maybe."
We salute Bob and commit to carrying on his good work. He loved South Africa and our people and picked up a few of our colloquialisms. One of his favourites was "Go well". In the spirit of Bob: "Go well, my friends."
Jeroen
16 October 2010
Winning Entry by Ziphozonke Lushaba: As good as you could be?
A toddler tends to her baby sister under the Enoch Sontonga bridge in Johannesburg.
Other pictures by the same photographer:
Children selling fruit and vegetables in Soweto. Child labour and exploitation is common in South Africa. In many food insecure households it is a survival strategy.
