DCM launches Soul Food Africa Limpopo branch

The launch was held at Steelpoort Supply Park on February 23. The purpose of this project in the Fetakgomo Tubatse Local Municipality is to feed schoolchildren. The main beneficiaries will be the local early childhood development (ECD) centres and schools in the Ngwaabe Circuit.

Thabo Maluleke from Education is our future and consultant for Soul food noted that there are already nutritional programmes in place from government, and the Soul Food project will not replace them, but supplement them and cover the gap of unfed children, which is currently running at 27%. He indicated their goal is to lower this figure. Maluleke also noted that part of their goal is to get children fed so they can focus and excel in school. Madikgake Masha, Ngwaabe Circuit’s Manager for the Department of Education, welcomed this initiative and highlighted that he is very happy with it. “The learners in the Ngwaabe area will be invested in and will have food. We expect this to also improve them academically and improve our overall pass rate.”

Portia Nkadimeng is the Limpopo branch manager of Soul Food. She will be handling all the donations to the ECD centres and local schools. Soup kitchens and other care facilities will be considered for assistance by Nkadimeng. It is important that recipients of a Soul Food delivery have a kitchen on site to prepare the food “We received 1 800 Soul Food Powa Packs, 100 Soul Seeds and 30 casserole beef and chicken mixes. Soul Food Powa Packs are mixed with water and enjoyed as a meal and have all the nutrients a child needs. Casserole mix just needs boiling water and a nutritious meal are ready.”

Soul Food is the primary project of the Soul Provider Trust and its purpose is to feed the starving, with particular focus on students and schoolchildren. “Experience has revealed that it is almost impossible for young adults and children to learn anything, or engage in extracurricular activities like sport, when they are desperately hungry. “Essentially Soul Food is a logistics operation. We collect surplus food from farms, hotels, restaurants, entertainment venues, food manufacturers, supermarkets and stores.

“We then deliver this food to hundreds of schools, and in the holidays to orphanages, shelters, old age homes and places of refuge.” Every day, the Soul Food project feeds about 50 000 schoolchildren as well as orphans, pensioners and abused women, the destitute, sick and terminally ill. This is 15 million meals a year, or 1.36 million a month. Nkadimeng welcomed any donations from local businesses and Good Samaritans to grow the project even further.

For donations, she can be contacted on 071 373 3077.