Shoprite provides meals of hope
FOURWAYS - Thousands of hungry bellies were filled in a simultaneous soup drive across South Africa on 30 July, as the Shoprite Mobile Soup Kitchens celebrated its fleet reaching 22 units.
Shoprite’s food initiative has gone from strength to strength, with ten trucks being acquired and customised to serve as fully equipped soup kitchens in 2014 alone. The programme’s 22 units are now collectively capable of serving up an impressive 600 000 nutritious meals per month.
To commemorate this milestone, Shoprite enlisted the help of South African celebrities to deliver soup to organisations across the country, including several schools and Diepsloot’s own Bona Lesedi Disability Centre.
Speaking at the official celebration in Centurion, Shoprite Checkers marketing director, Neil Schreuder encouraged even the smallest of businesses to get involved in social investment projects, emphasising that every contribution to social upliftment, no matter how small, makes a difference to the lives of those who need it most.
“The supermarket group is aware of the ongoing economic pressures experienced by all South Africans, especially in underprivileged communities, and we believe that our Mobile Soup Kitchens don’t only offer a cup of soup, but provide a meal of hope,” Schreuder added.
The Mobile Soup Kitchens operate seven days a week, in needy areas where even access to water is often limited. The hearty soup is prepared on board the trucks, which are customised with fully-functional kitchens and manned by specially trained food crews.
The feeding programme was launched in 2007, with only two Mobile Soup Kitchens serving Gauteng and the North West Province. Since then, Shoprite’s fleet of Mobile Soup Kitchens has served 19 million cups of soup to the severely disadvantaged and victims of natural disasters, and the programme is projected to reach more than seven million hungry people this year alone.
Details: @Shoprite_SA #ShopriteSoup
