KFC adds hope by raising R3.8 million

In South Africa, hunger is not a once-off problem, it is a perpetual issue that demands year-round attention and sustainable assistance to make a real impact to communities.

For the past 6 years KFC Add Hope, with the help of customers and KFC restaurants, has been able to provide 70 000 children with nutritious and quality meals daily to make sure they can attend school with a full tummy.

During the KFC Add Hope is World Hunger Month in October, where the brand shows customers the difference their R2 donations are making, and this last month this was done by telling the story of hope seen through the eyes of the children we feed.

The children shared their hopes and dreams of what they wanted to be when they were bigger; an astronaut, a nurse, a teacher or a ballerina. In response, KFC customers around South Africa showed their full support to raise a total of R3.8 million in-store just this month.

This peak in monthly donations takes the year’s donations from customers to R28.5 million, which will assist with the increase in the number of children fed in 2015 and the expansion of the feeding programmes into other areas where Add Hope has not reached.

Add Hope is a fundraising mechanic bringing together customers, franchisees and employees to combat the growing issue of hunger within our country, providing a glimmer of hope to children who may not otherwise have access to daily meals.

“Thank you to all our customers who continue to donate every time they visit a KFC. The meals your donations buy are having a real impact on the communities Add Hope assists and it is so amazing to see how children act after a meal; how happy and strong they are and how their day is so much better in school,” says CSR and Sponsorship Manager at KFC South Africa, Lauren Turnbull.

Each KFC restaurant contributes to Add Hope through a percentage of funds donated from their marketing royalty annually, currently this year the amount is standing at R20.6 million, taking the total raised for the year together with customers to R49.1 million.

“We would like to send a special thank you to all the children from the beneficiaries we support who shared their hopes and dreams, allowing us to take South Africans on a journey of hope this World Hunger Month,” said Lauren.

Organisations like Joint Aid Management (JAMSA), Afrika Tikkun, Hope Worldwide and many more provide the nutritious meals that these children need every day. “If you want to meet real heroes then look no further than our beneficiaries they are the ones who make the feeding work possible to make an impact,” adds Lauren.

David Brown from Joint Aid Management South Africa (JAMSA), one of Add Hope’s partners on the ground, believes that Add Hope is truly making a difference.

“The funding we get for our feeding programme from Add Hope makes it possible for us to give thousands of children a better start in life by ensuring they have food in their tummies, so we can focus on other needs such as education, health and infrastructure development.

Add Hope provides us with around 30% of our funding, amounting to just over R9.2 million a year, and this gives us a way to help the children achieve their dreams.”Over the next five years, Add Hope’s aim is to feed even more children and help to bring the number of hungry children in South Africa down.

“We continue to encourage communities across the country to get involved by finding ways to feed their communities, by supporting farming projects and other ways to reduce hunger and provide food security and nutrition,” concludes Turnbull.