FoodBank South Africa (FBSA) officially launched its Buy-to-Give programme with the procurement of 107 tons of maize meal for distribution to its agencies late last year.
The purchasing of the maize meal was made possible with funding from the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund. The maize was distributed just before Christmas to 1,100 FBSA-accredited NGOs serving the poor in Gauteng, the Eastern Cape, the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.
The stock – 8,650 12.5-kg bags – was distributed through FoodBank’s warehouses and community depots in and around Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth, Cape Town and Durban.
Jeroen de Lijster, the managing director of FBSA, said maize meal and other staple foods were in high demand with agencies serving the poor. “FoodBank agencies are typically orphanages, creches, edu-care centres, homes for the aged, shelters, clinics and feeding schemes. These organisations collectively serve more than 200,000 beneficiaries. They are the poorest of the poor and are in dire need of food.”
De Lijster said hunger and malnutrition in South Africa is widespread and has far-reaching socio-economic consequences. “About 2.8 million households in South Africa – approximately 11 million people – have insufficient or severely insufficient access to food. And one in five children under the age of nine suffers stunting as a result of chronic malnutrition.”
Up until now, FoodBank has relied heavily on “recovered” and donated food, but the demand for a regular supply of nutritious staple food to agencies has prompted the organisation to move into the procurement of food to give to agencies serving food insecure people.
“This maize meal will compliment what we’re giving our agencies,” said de Lijster. “By proving food assistance to agencies, FBSA enables agencies to focus their energies and resources on social development rather than on sourcing food.”
Phumla Qwela, the principal of Ilitha Educare & Aftercare in Nyanga, had this to say: “Thank you FoodBank for the maize! It is really nice that you give us good quality food. I usually spend R1,500 a month on maize, rice and samp alone. Now I will use the money that you have saved me to buy more vegetables and meat.”
FoodBank is appealing to socially responsible companies to “put food first” by allocating funding to FBSA's Buy-to-Give programme: “Food is the foundation of all human potential. We all need food. We believe that by eradicating hunger and malnutrition we will be in a far better position to tackle some of the biggest social challenges facing our nation.”
