Thousands of children attending 135 early childhood development (ECD) centres across Ekurhuleni and the West Rand will receive nutritious meals thanks to Benoni’s 100% Foundation and Rise Against Hunger Africa.

Supported by 120 volunteers, who filled the Wesley Hall at Northfield Methodist Church on Mandela Day (July 18), the organisations prepared 70 000 meal packs destined for 65 ECD centres in Ekurhuleni and 70 in the West Rand, including Soweto.

The initiative has grown significantly since 2024, when the organisations packed 40 000 meals for 92 beneficiary centres.

Reflecting on the importance of the campaign, 100% Foundation senior development and coordination officer Janap Biemba said hunger in ECD centres has a devastating impact on children’s cognitive and physical development.

“Nutrition is essential. How can a child concentrate in the classroom when they are hungry?” she asked.

“One of the commitments of the 100% Foundation is to ensure that every child supported through our beneficiary programmes receives a meal, whether through our e-pap or the grains we supply.”

Biemba said the foundation understands the challenges ECDs face due to gaps in government nutrition programmes and is determined to ensure no child in their care goes hungry.

“We know that nutrition support is limited or, in some areas, simply not available. Fortunately, our donors enable us to support our young children, especially because the foundation phase is so important,” she said.

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“If a child is not in the classroom because of hunger, how will they thrive? We want to help eradicate that.”

Reducing food costs for ECDs

Despite the scale of the challenge, Rise Against Hunger Africa national events and volunteer manager Anneke Senekal said the organisation remains committed to ending hunger.

“It is a difficult task because, let’s face it, hunger is a major problem,” said Senekal.

“At Rise Against Hunger, we work with unregistered ECD centres. We provide a box of meals every six weeks to a principal caring for about 20 children.

“By reducing their food costs, the centres can reinvest those savings into educational toys, safety equipment such as fire extinguishers, or teacher training.

“Those improvements help ECDs meet the requirements to register with the Department of Social Development. Once they are registered, it allows us to extend our support to even more centres.”

One of the beneficiaries, Anna Khasu Empowerment Centre, also lent a helping hand during the meal-packing event.

“We are one of the beneficiaries of the 100% Foundation, which supports many of our programmes,” said Disemelo Makhanda.

“When Janap approached us about the goal of packing 70 000 meals, we were happy to get involved because we believe in the impact of the initiative.”

Biemba added that each meal pack provides enough food for six people, with the number of boxes allocated according to the number of children at each centre.

Also Read: Volunteers surpass Rise Against Hunger’s 30 000-meal target