Shoprite opens doors to community gardens for World Hunger Day

The community garden at Greenlands Primary School in Bishop Lavis, Cape Town

The group believes in taking hands with local community organisations in the fight against hunger. Its vision is to enable communities to feed themselves in an independent and sustainable manner, which has resulted in the implementation of sustainable food gardens across the country.

“By investing in and expanding long-term sustainable initiatives, such as food gardens, community feeding schemes now have access to fresh and nutritional produce plus they are able to sell their excess crops in order to generate much-needed funds,” explains Adele Lambrechts, the Shoprite Group’s PR and communications manager.

In partnership with local farming specialists such as Urban Harvest and Food & Trees for Africa, the group ensures that these community organisations are mentored and equipped to create and maintain their gardens.

The Group’s holistic hunger relief programme continues to identify practical yet effective solutions to address short, medium and long-term community needs. In addition to the sustainable food gardens, surplus food from all Shoprite and Checkers stores are made available to hundreds of verified non-profit organisations whilst its fleet of mobile soup kitchens enables the group to respond to immediate needs in vulnerable communities.