This week Grahamstown raises the flag of awareness about hunger and poverty. To call attention to World Food Day and Poverty Eradication Day today, Grocott's Mail visited the Grahamstown Feeding Association's soup kitchen and the Umthati Training Project's Joza gardens.
This week Grahamstown raises the flag of awareness about hunger and poverty. To call attention to World Food Day and Poverty Eradication Day today, Grocott's Mail visited the Grahamstown Feeding Association's soup kitchen and the Umthati Training Project's Joza gardens.
Umthati project administrator Xoliswa Mbewu-Maotla said that 85 dedicated elderly people use their time to grow vegetables to be able to sustain themselves. "At Umthati we teach people how to make a living for themselves through gardening," Maotla said.
"We have courses in money management so that when they sell their seedlings they can be able to use the money accordingly."
Maotla said that Umthathi has been an essential project in Joza as it has curbed the struggle for food some elderly people face.
"Although we face challenges such as water scarcity, we have built our own dam nearby because this project is very important to us," Maotla said.
"World food day to me means that you reap what you sow, working in this garden has shown me the importance of greens and eating right," Siphiwo Mali said.
The Linomtha garden in Ext 7 was packed with the greens Mali mentioned. Maotla told Grocott's Mail that youth should take planting vegetables seriously and not see it as dirty or a waste of time. It would help to teach them the value of good food that supplies nutrients and vitamins for a healthy body and mind.
Many elderly people make their way to the soup kitchen every morning, and some of them depend on these meals to get through the day. Monica Dayimani said she exists on the soup kitchen and her support grant.
"I live with my daughter, she is unemployed and we only depend on my support grant," she said.
"The soup kitchen helps people like me. I am poor, but someone chooses to give me a bowl of soup each day, and I appreciate it."
Joan Kaye, chairperson of the feeding association, said the kitchen, which is an NGO, serves 4 slices of bread and a bowl of soup to each person. Sometimes the bread has peanut butter.
The group, which is funded by Rhodes University, also distributes food parcels every month, she said.
The Public Service Accountability Monitor, PSAM, was set to explore issues of food security and hunger in the South African context on Thursday, October 16. Researchers in Health, Human Settlements, Local Government and Education were to engage on issues of food security and hunger.
The issues will be shared online. According to StatsSA in 2012, 36.2% of food-insecure households were found in the Eastern Cape.
While South Africa is not ranked amongst the countries that are hardest hit by hunger globally, South Africans are particularly vulnerable to micro-nutrient deficiencies.
