Overseas donations help Durban North organisation feed the hungry
The volunteers pick, sort, cut and dry the fruit. They then assemble and pack boxes ready to be sent to some 40 nations around the world.
FOUR times a year, containers from the faraway ‘Golden State’ arrive in Durban harbour filled with dried fruits and soup mixes bursting with nutrition.
It’s all produce of the rich agricultural lands of the San Joaquin Valley, California. The farmers of the area are generous in their donations to Gleanings for the Hungry with its focus on producing food for a world where too many have too little to eat.
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Some two decades ago, connections with the American NGO were forged by a network of local NGOs through uMhlanga-based Container Ministries and Grace Aid.
“Building relationships and mentorship are crucial aspects of everything we do,” said Dave Ritcher of Grace Family Church.
“We are passionate about feeding hungry people but also about seeing holistic development in the lives of individual people.”
Each year, Grace Aid hosts a conference for empowering, sharing and networking. This year, Gleanings’ entire Outreach Team of 16 travelled 17 000 km to join the delegates.
Cathy Whittle of The Domino Foundation’s Nutrition Programme said it was a delight to meet some of the team who sourced, packed and dispatched the produce to make its way to some of the 15 000 beneficiaries on Domino’s programmes.
In her conversations with Ritcher, Cathy got a picture of Gleanings’ activities. He told her that each summer, camps are held in the valley to host young day, week and long-term volunteers who book two years in advance.
At other times of year, soup mix production kicks in. Truckloads of life-saving food are mixed and packaged. The grand total of food leaving the shores of the Western USA is around 80 containers every year.
Whittle is never slow to start dreaming bigger, and by the end of the conference and her time with the Gleanings for the Hungry team, she was formulating ways to grapple with the logistics to send a team of South African youngsters for the fruit-picking season.
“We are so often on the receiving end of the generosity of people from elsewhere. It’s time we joined them in their labour of love!” she said.
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