A five-strong foodbanking team from South Africa recently spent a challenging two weeks in the United States, initially attending the H-E-B FoodBanking Leadership Program, held in San Antonio, Texas. This annual event continues to grow; this year 39 people from more than 20 countries attended the initiative.
Our group left for the United States at the end of February and comprised Geoff Penny (Executive Director) and Nomakula Mrubata (Manager of Community Development) of FoodBank South Africa, Stuart McPherson (co-chair of FoodBank Cape Town), Colin Fox (working to establish FoodBank Port Elizabeth) and Reverend Siviwe Kobokana (of the Ethiopian Episcopal Church, who oversees the development of rural foodbanks.) They followed our trailblazers Patrick Andries and Craig Stewart of FoodBank Cape Town, who attended the equivalent conference last year.
The five day course began early each morning. Each full day of lectures was crafted to assist those in leadership positions in their efforts to establish foodbanks around the world. Presenters with a sound knowledge of the global foodbank system shared their wisdom in organising and channeling resources effectively, gave advice on sourcing food and donors, and offered suggestions on developing stakeholder relations.
Much of the benefit stemmed from exchanging ideas with other foodbanking enthusiasts. For example, the South Africans found the service orientation of the "Eurozone" group insightful, while the South Americans shared some good entrepreneurial ideas which may help in our rural efforts. Our own colleagues also contributed. Stuart McPherson made a very good presentation of how FoodBank Cape Town operates, and there was keen interest in "vegitunnels" as explained by Colin Fox.
After the well-run and invaluable conference, “Team South Africa” was hosted at the Global FoodBanking Network headquarters in Chicago for two days to gain more practical knowledge in managing foodbanks, and finally the team was off to observe operations in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Spending time in the US became a cultural experience as well as an educational one, and our team took time to discuss and reflect on what they learned. While foodbanking is new to South Africa, some foodbanks in the US were established 20 years ago, and this time has allowed them to evolve and perfect their organisations. But there are also differences that differentiate hunger itself in South Africa from that in other countries.
“Our conditions are more extreme” said Geoff Penny of FoodBank South Africa, “the hungry here face starvation and death”.
The team is now back in South Africa and ready to put what they have learned into practice.
Geoff concluded, “Having seen what has been achieved elsewhere, I’m very excited at what is in store for us. “
FoodBank Cape Town has been operating since 2 March 2009. FoodBank South Africa hopes that additional community foodbanks will open in Port Elizabeth, Durban, and Johannesburg by the end of 2009. Our initiative to development our rural areas is progressing rapidly under the guidance of Bishop Malusi Mpumlwana.
We are most grateful to H-E-B, a grocery products chain in Texas and Mexico, who sponsored the flights and accommodation for the group. To give Geoff the final word. "H-E-B is a company with a great heart!"
