“We need to reach more people,” said FoodBank SA's MD Jeroen de Lijster, “So we want to move away from using only donated food.”
Traditionally the organisation, and others like it around the country, has received most of its supplies from donations give by the food and grocery industries, government agencies and individuals. The food is stored, sorted into nutritionally sensible packages and delivered to schools, soup kitchens and HIV/AIDS clinics. However, this situation has created a dependency on donations, sometimes resulting in a lack of adequate food.
The agency's solution to the dependency is a partnership programme with manufacturers, producers, and farmers, which adds additional incentive to join forces and creates a more considered and accurate approach to feeding people.
It would shift to a more proactive state of negotiating partnerships ahead of time, where the organisation would agree to buy food in bulk. This would ensure the community food banks were well stocked with staple products such as sugar, samp and maize.
This would also provide incentives to businesses and farmers. Businesses would see a profit, as produce that may not have been sold, especially in the case of excess yield by farmers, will be negotiated for and purchased regularly.
This partnership links the corporate and agricultural sides of South Africa with the social concerns of society, creating a positive step towards the eradication of hunger, which breeds other social issues such as poor education, disease and crime.
FoodBank SA currently operates four community food banks - in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban and Port Elizabeth - with plans to open 20 food banks over the next three years. For more information, visit www.foodbank.org.za.
