[PICS] Passionately serving her community
Passionate Feeding Scheme celebrates 10 years of serving.
For ten years, the Passionate Feeding Scheme has been feeding children, the elderly and those who are HIV positive.
Their drop-in centre aims to ensure that children are supported with food, education and other basic needs, as laid down in our Constitution. They provide food for the children, support for the HIV-infected and educational programmes for the youth they employ and assist.
“Passionate Feeding employs 34 people who earn a stipend. Our development programme has had beautiful results. Some of the people who have worked with us and undergone our development programme have become social auxiliary nurses and childcare workers,” said Rachel Tshabalala, founder of the feeding scheme.
Rachel established and continues to run this organisation out of her home.
“I sacrificed my privacy and family life for my community because I grew up in Kagiso, where I could see the community’s challenges, and decided to do something to alleviate them,” she told the News.
Serving an average of 300 children from 6am, Rachel and her team prepares breakfast before the children go to school and serves lunch when they return. They also run a reading club and an educational support programme.
Two weeks ago, (23 July) the organisation celebrated its ten year anniversary in style, with members of local radio stations and Kagiso’s social crime unit in attendance.
“The mood was celebratory and awesome,” Rachel told the News. The event also doubled up as a Mandela Day celebration.
Running an organisation this big has not come without its challenges. Rachel said, “Business people in this area are reluctant to assist us because they think we’re a profit-making business. In fact, we really are a non-profit organisation.”
She is determined not to allow these challenges to stop her hard work and has plans to increase the number of people the feeding scheme serves. And it looks like that dream will become a reality. The organisation was recently given land on which it plans to start a food garden, with the aim of growing the food they distribute, instead of buying it.
“Our community must accept that we are a community home and we are open for anyone,” she told the News.
