Fight against hunger continue amidst Covid-19 pandemic

THE country may be opening up, as lockdown restrictions are slowly eased, but the battle against hunger is far from over.

The food relief programme initiated by the Ward 66 Vulnerable Groups Committee at the start of lockdown has not backed down on its mission to provide less fortunate families residing on the Bluff with meals to help them get by. The team of volunteers started out providing cooked meals but soon realised that they needed more than one hot meal a day, and sent out a relief request for food hampers.

The committee’s chairperson, Zoe Solomon, has done a remarkable job in ensuring that the project lives up to its purpose despite the financial pinch felt by the greater public. She shared that the community support exceeded expectations having received R105 000 in donations in response to her appeal for help. By the time the City had issued the grocery vouchers, the team was able to hand them out to 1000 families.

Now in June, they have mainly been doing emergency parcels and are supporting two other teams who feed about 300 meals, seven days a week on the Bluff.

“It has been such an impactful team effort. I shared my cellphone number on social media platforms and with like-minded associations across the Bluff, the word spread very easily. I also set up volunteers who took responsibility for the collection of names and addresses of the people in the community who were in need. Bearing in mind that the Bluff has seven sub-suburbs, it was no easy task. Word spread and the data base grew by up to 200 people daily,” shared Zoe.

The criteria for the beneficiaries of the food programme was selecting a family or individuals who had lost income due to the lockdown, was not previously unemployed or is a grant recipient. “This helped to reach the right individuals and impacted their lives as they had severe food security issues they could have never foreseen.”

Organisations and businesses that lent a helping a hand included Food For Life NPO who provided 8000 cooked meals for the committee to distribute. Afro India Recyclers CC provided a large cash donation and distribution of food parcels for a day. Thanks also go to sponsors West Auto wash, Mobile Auto Repairs, CV joint Mac, Regals Spares, Leon’s Bottle Store, Raving Ganesh, MAD and the supportive community.

“The entire experience has been rewarding. I have encountered such an overwhelming number of desperate people and was able to assist nearly all of them for eight weeks straight. Not a small feat. The donations from people in the community and even from people overseas was so uplifting.

“The difficulty I faced on this project was discerning who really needed the food because they had lost income due to lockdown and who were previously unemployed. Even though they were just as desperate, they didn’t qualify under the set criteria. In many instances we were able to share excess from food parcel collections but I know there were a number of people we just couldn’t help. What kept me going was the support of my small volunteer team. Their commitment to community inspired me and there was so much love being shared between us and around us in every task. All voluntary, all at our own expense. Although we have slowed tight down, we still do as much as we can where funds allow,” said a compassionate Zoe who was also nominated for and awarded the Kagiso Media Sponsorship on East Coast Radio this month.

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