Grocott's Mail
  • NEWS
    • Courts & Crime
    • Features
    • Politics
    • People
    • Health & Well-being
  • SPORT
    • News
    • Results
    • Sports Diary
    • Club Contacts
    • Columns
    • Sport Galleries
    • Sport Videos
  • OPINION
    • Election Connection
    • Makana Voices
    • Deur ‘n Gekleurde Bril
    • Newtown… Old Eyes
    • Incisive View
    • Your Say
  • ARTSLIFE
    • Cue
    • Makana Sharp!
    • Visual Art
    • Literature
    • Food & Fun
    • Festivals
    • Community Arts
    • Going Places
  • OUR TOWN
    • What’s on
    • Spiritual
    • Emergency & Well-being
    • Safety
    • Civic
    • Municipality
    • Weather
    • Properties
      • Grahamstown Properties
    • Your Town, Our Town
  • OUTSIDE
    • Enviro News
    • Gardening
    • Farming
    • Science
    • Conservation
    • Motoring
    • Pets/Animals
  • ECONOMIX
    • Business News
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Personal Finance
  • EDUCATION
    • Education NEWS
    • Education OUR TOWN
    • Education INFO
  • Covid-19
  • EDITORIAL
Facebook Twitter Instagram
Trending
  • Africa Day: A celebration of our colourful continent
  • Swallows and Rhodes at top of the log battle
  • Makana Municipality admits that E.coli has infected the water supply
  • Anti-rape activist sues Rhodes University for R10 million
  • Bonus point win for Stars while Brumbies suffers heavy defeat
  • Sewage up to the front door in Extension Eight!
  • Bipolar Awareness Day on 26 May
  • First win for Klipfontein over Tigers
Facebook Twitter Instagram
Grocott's Mail
  • NEWS
    • Courts & Crime
    • Features
    • Politics
    • People
    • Health & Well-being
  • SPORT
    • News
    • Results
    • Sports Diary
    • Club Contacts
    • Columns
    • Sport Galleries
    • Sport Videos
  • OPINION
    • Election Connection
    • Makana Voices
    • Deur ‘n Gekleurde Bril
    • Newtown… Old Eyes
    • Incisive View
    • Your Say
  • ARTSLIFE
    • Cue
    • Makana Sharp!
    • Visual Art
    • Literature
    • Food & Fun
    • Festivals
    • Community Arts
    • Going Places
  • OUR TOWN
    • What’s on
    • Spiritual
    • Emergency & Well-being
    • Safety
    • Civic
    • Municipality
    • Weather
    • Properties
      • Grahamstown Properties
    • Your Town, Our Town
  • OUTSIDE
    • Enviro News
    • Gardening
    • Farming
    • Science
    • Conservation
    • Motoring
    • Pets/Animals
  • ECONOMIX
    • Business News
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Personal Finance
  • EDUCATION
    • Education NEWS
    • Education OUR TOWN
    • Education INFO
  • Covid-19
  • EDITORIAL
Grocott's Mail
You are at:Home»NEWS»Virtual Marathon runners provide 3500 meals
NEWS

Virtual Marathon runners provide 3500 meals

Grocott's Mail ContributorsBy Grocott's Mail ContributorsOctober 6, 2020Updated:October 16, 2020No Comments4 Mins Read
Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email

By DEBBIE SMUTS

The Rotary Club of Grahamstown Sunset handed over the proceeds from their recent GBS Mountain Drive Virtual Half Marathon fundraiser ‘Miles for Meals’ to the Makhanda Circle of Unity Covid-19 community kitchen project on Friday 2 October.  The event raised R14 000 for the scheme, which equates to about 3 500 meals. While this sounds like a lot of plates of food, it is in fact only about half of the number of people fed by the scheme each week.

While much of the food is cooked in private community kitchens during the week, there were large pots of nutritious food being prepared at the Eluxolweni Community Hall on Friday morning when President of the Rotary Club of Grahamstown Sunset, Javier Martin arrived to make the official handover.

Martin explained that the Rotarians had faced the prospect of cancelling the Mountain Drive Half Marathon for this year with the Covid-19 pandemic limiting sports events.  Organisers decided to make the marathon a virtual event, giving runners the opportunity to run the race in their own time and environment.  A 5km and 10km race was also included along with the Half Marathon distance of 21.1km and the ‘Miles for Meals’ event was launched.

New Rotarian, Robyn Cooper, was roped in to develop the web platform that allowed runners to register and pay a fee of R50, as well as the report-back process where they could log their run with photos, running app details and stories. There were cash prizes donated by the GBS Mutual Bank and two fabulous lucky draw prizes – a game drive donated by Kwandwe Private Game Reserve and a two-night stay at the Umngazi River Hotel and Spa resort on the Transkei coast.

Martin said, “Thanks to Robyn, signing up for the event was really easy, and we now have a platform that we can use for other virtual events.

“Runners were enthusiastic about how it all worked, and we were astounded at the support we had from all over the world. Runners joined in from the US, UK, New Zealand and Japan, as well as from all provinces in South Africa.  And we had many generous local people who made donations to support the project, even if they were not going to run. We had great support from Albany Runners, who always join our organising committee, so it is a joint effort.”

“You turned ‘virtual’ into ‘virtue’,” quipped Tim Bull, secretary of the Grahamstown Residents’ Association (GRA), under whose auspices the Circle of Unity operates. Bull was joined by Ntuthu Blow, Administrator of the GRA, and Gunda Krause, the chair of the Grahamstown Feeding Association, for the handover.

Community kitchen cook, Nomakulu Fondini prepares a huge pot of nutritious vegetable soup for the Makhanda Circle of Unity feeding scheme at the Eluxolweni Community Hall. Photo: Supplied

One of the community cooks, Nomakhulu Fondini was on hand to show how she prepares a giant pot of chopped vegetables into a nutritious broth which is served with samp and beans or whatever else is available for the daily meals. Collection of the meals is characterised by orderly queues of mask-wearing children and adults, responsibly keeping appropriate social distancing.

Bull explained that fundraising for the remaining months of 2020 is in progress to ensure that the community kitchens can continue to operate.

“They are fulfilling a critical need at the moment, feeding many hungry residents who have been affected by lockdown-induced job losses. We cannot stop now when the need is greatest.”

Martin explained that his Rotary Club was planning another virtual fundraiser for the community kitchens in November, this time an auction where bidders can make virtual offers for attractive items sourced by Rotarians from donors.  “We hope that we can depend on the generosity of our supporters again for this worthy cause”, he said.

Previous ArticleResidents take Makana to court over rubbish
Next Article SAPS to investigate cop’s social media posts
Grocott's Mail Contributors

Grocott's Mail Contributors includes content submitted by members of the public, and public and private institutions and organisations - regular and occasional, expert and citizen, opinion and analysis.

Comments are closed.

Tweets by Grocotts
Newsletter



Listen

The Rhodes University Community Engagement Division has launched Engagement in Action, a new podcast which aims to bring to life some of the many ways in which the University interacts with communities around it. Check it out below.

Humans of Makhanda

Humans of Makhanda

Weather    |     About     |     Advertise     |     Subscribe     |     Contact     |     Support Grocott’s Mail

© 2023 Maintained by School of Journalism & Media Studies.

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.