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NCPD, RSA Group join hands on World Hunger Day feeding hundreds in Bloem

30 May 2019

The National Council of and for Persons with Disabilities (NCPD) joined forces with the RSA Group to mark World Hunger Day on 28 May, supplying fresh fruit and vegetables to three facilities in Bloemfontein. They were joined by Meals on Wheels which made its kitchen available and helped with the cooking.

Nthabiseng Molongoana (right) from the Association of and for Persons with Disabilities in Bloemfontein being interviewed for television at Tuesday’s World Hunger Day event held at the Kopano Workshop in Bloemfontein.

The recipients are the Emelia Centre for children with severe disabilities, the Kopano Workshop for adults with disabilities and the Jean Webber home for persons with severe disabilities.

Therina Wentzel-du Toit, national director of the NCDP, said they identified the three facilities as being in much need of a regular good meal and moreover healthy, nutrient-rich fruit and vegetables.

According to Zani Kunz, national director of the Mike Loutfie Foundation, the RSA Group has and will continue to supply the three facilities with fresh fruit and vegetables from the Bloemfontein Fresh Produce Market on a weekly basis. The RSA Group, founded in 1974, is a trader in fresh fruit and vegetables on behalf of its principles. The Mike Loutfie Foundation coordinates all the RSA Group’s socio-economic endeavours through sustainable programmes.

The NCPD, together with the Mike Loutfie Foundation, the RSA Group and Meals on Wheels also used World Hunger Day to serve soup to 1,000 people in Bloemfontein.

Hunger, disability correlation

According to the Hunger Project, more than 821 million people worldwide do not have enough to eat, with 60% of the world’s hungry being women and 98% of the world’s undernourished living in developing countries. In a recent report, Statistics SA stated that in 2017, 6.8 million South Africans experienced hunger with 1.7 million households across the country affected.

Wentzel-du Toit emphasised that there is a direct correlation between hunger and disability, i.e. disability in many cases is a direct consequence of hunger and vice versa. She said that the RSA Group will also assist the facilities in creating vegetable gardens for the sustainable availability of fresh produce, skills development and eventually to create a source of income.