By MARY BIRT, Food4Futures
Food4Futures (F4F) appreciates and values every single cent we receive to buy groceries for parcels and help with our other costs of running F4F. Additional donations of clothing, bedding, shoes, and household goods are the cherry-on-the-top, the sweet and welcome add-ons we can give away. It is humbling to be part of such a caring community. Thank you.
We are very settled in our new home at 2 Dundas Street. It is the perfect position in town and space for us to work. Come and visit us to see how we are progressing.
We have an outstanding, consistent workforce who are committed to our aims of providing an excellent service to the community in which we live, coupled with cooperation, care and compassion towards those who visit us. The first and most crucial task at F4F is to recognise and acknowledge each person’s identity and dignity, both of which can be lost because of unfair circumstances.
We also have very generous volunteers who give freely of their time, some of whom have been helping us since April 2010. If you’d like to join the volunteer group, please contact us at 0836510067. We have a new-look website, www.food4futures.co.za, which includes an online store that allows people to make donations or buy parcels and parking vouchers.
The Parking4Parcels project is growing steadily and has become a vital part of our foodstuff distribution. Motorists buy vouchers (10 in a pack of R5, R10, R15 and R20 vouchers) to tip car guards instead of cash.
Parcels are packed in according to the value of the ticket, and the parcels are collected from F4F by the car guards. They are also given to people asking for help in town or suburban homes.
The books of vouchers are available from the following outlets – Food4Futures 2 Dundas Street, Rat and Parrot, Makana Tourism, Grahamstown Properties, Dr Dwyer, Pothole and Donkey, Red Café, and ABM Office National.
The funds donated for the ID project have now been exhausted, but we are happy to say that more funds will be forthcoming soon. This project has helped over 100 people whose IDs were lost, stolen or consumed by fire. It is humbling to see the joy on people’s faces when they receive their new ID, which sometimes helps them with job applications. Mostly, it is a restoration of dignity to have an ID and not something to be taken lightly.
We were very well supported for “67 minutes for Mandela” by two businesses, a school and a church collecting hundreds of blankets to hand out, which we did at the end of July.
We continue to collect clothes, shoes, bedding and household goods to give away. Our last distribution of clothes in August helped approximately 350 people with three items of clothing each. We realise that fundraising will be crucial in the future as our normal monthly income is not covering our monthly expenditure. Fortunately, we also receive ad hoc, once-off donations, which are often in large amounts and help a lot, but we can’t be sure of our income.
We appeal to anyone reading this with good ideas regarding fundraising, particularly if you know potential donors nationally or internationally, to let us know. We have found that the current need for food is multiplying again. It is almost as intense as it was at the beginning of the lockdown.
Joblessness coupled with the price of food and transport is hitting our compromised community very hard.
Despite the challenges everyone faces and the fact we cannot help them all with food parcels, we have great relationships with our visitors and, even those who receive so little from us, are happy to come here for sandwiches and a bit of a chat or even just a kind word.
F4F is truly becoming a real community, and we are privileged to be part of this growth.
You can contact Mary Birt on 083 651 0067 or mary@food4futures.co.za
