FoodBank is delighted to acknowledge with huge appreciation a contribution of R1 million from Old Mutual and an undertaking of a further R1m from the Old Mutual Foundation.
FoodBank’s managing director, Alan Gilbertson, said FoodBank was deeply grateful to Old Mutual for this vital support. “We salute Old Mutual for excellent corporate citizenship, demonstrated by its commitment to funding important social causes such as ours.”
Mr Gilbertson said Old Mutual was a long-standing supporter of FoodBank, providing funding and high calibre volunteers such as Crispin Sonn, the managing director of Old Mutual’s Mass Foundation Cluster.
Mr Sonn has served – on a voluntary (unpaid) basis – as a member of FoodBank’s board of directors since the inception of the organisation and was its founding chairman. Before that he served as a director of FeedBack Food Redistribution, one of the founding organisations of FoodBank. Mr Sonn is also a voluntary trustee of the FoodBank Foundation, which is a trust established to create sustainable funding for FoodBank by striking BEE deals.
In the early days of FoodBank, staff from Old Mutual’s Ilima Group volunteered their services to FoodBank, and the company allowed FoodBank to use Old Mutual House to host directors’ meetings and even a fundraising dinner, Mr Gilbertson said.
“Old Mutual has been a great and loyal friend to FoodBank in times of need and in times of plenty. This much-needed funding has given us a lifeline. It will buy us the time to get our fundraising efforts back into full swing. The combined R2m will enable FoodBank to deliver more than 1,6 million meals to the hungry. More importantly, it will help ensure that we remain afloat to donate a much larger number of meals in the months and years ahead.
“Thank you, Old Mutual. Without you FoodBank would not be here today – and the many thousands of people we feed each day would be very hungry.”
