It is a truism that education is the pathway to a better future, but a child cannot learn on an empty stomach. It is a vicious circle that can trap orphaned and vulnerable children, and children from poor households in poverty.
But there are people who are willing to share their last slice of bread to help feed the poor. Africa Food for Thought (AFFT), founded by Debbie Higgs and registered as a non-profit organisation in 2006, is one such group of people. Its motto is “Feeding Children, Bringing Hope”, and it is with this in mind that the organisation runs 13 school feeding projects, seven crèches and five community feeding schemes: “In total, we feed over 12 000 children,” it says.
It also supports 90 households with weekly food parcels. General manager Claire Rosewarne explains what is on the agenda at present: “We’re arranging a food parcel hand-out for our 350 crèche children for World Food Day on 16 October. The highlight on our calendar is the orphaned and vulnerable children’s Christmas Party. We are inviting over 200 children for a day of spoiling.”
AFFT works in places where children take care of children in child-headed households, where the next meal is an unknown. It helps to fill these young stomachs with warm meals. It works in schools – most of them primary schools – in Soweto, Slovoville, Kagiso and Muldersdrift, as well as in informal crèches in these areas. It is based on the West Rand outside Johannesburg, but AFFT has gone beyond Gauteng to KwaZulu-Natal and other provinces.
Africa Food For Thought works tirelessly to feed 12 000 schoolchildren each day, and has programmes to assist orphaned and vulnerable children (Images: Africa Food for Thought Facebook page)The team tries to deliver monthly food parcels, sorting clothes and packing parcels with the help of volunteers. It fills a community with hope that help will come and that everything will work out. “We depend on sponsors and donations to keep us going,” says Rosewarne. “Almost all our work is carried out by volunteers. Our delivery assistant drives our truck.
“Through our schools and crèches programmes we support children. We also have 90 orphaned and vulnerable children families that receive monthly food parcels.”
In another vital initiative, AFFT has set up and supports a youth group called Youth Crime Fighters that has 100 children under its wing. These children attend the group in the afternoons, where they can get help with their homework, do cultural dance, play chess, football and netball. The soccer team has even joined the local league. Its goal is to fight crime by providing positive alternatives to schoolchildren. Through learning and working together at the group, they learn valuable life skills and get a nutritious meal every day.
There are a lot of ways to climb a mountain, and the AFFT team walked that extra mile in August when its members, Janine de Gouveia, Gary Bannatyne, Chanelle Birch and Llewellyn Marshall climbed Kilimanjaro to raise funds for and awareness of the starving youth and families across the country.
It has also started a drive to raise R1-million to buy its own premises. One fundraising initiative is a recipe book filled with a wide variety of dishes sent by people from different backgrounds. There was one specification when people submitted their recipes: it had to be a favourite recipe, tried and tested. In the recipe book there are family favourites of generations, there are fun dishes, there are dishes for emergencies and there are some that might challenge some. The book, with 130 recipes in all, sells for R150 each or for R130 each for orders of more than 50.
“We are also involved in a number of community projects, self-help or empowerment projects and shelters and half-way houses. Our aim is to help those who need it the most within the vulnerable and marginalised areas. Our vision is to feed people in the name of Christ, in order to bring hope to the hopeless,” AFFT says.
For more information, visit the AFFT website or send an email to info@afft.org.za.
