By Asiphesona Wonqwelo
Mandela Day comes in the middle of the winter season and the freezing temperatures in Makhanda have not been kind to the locals, particularly those who are less fortunate.
This unfortunate reality is exactly what prompted the folks at Food4Futures to use their 67 minutes for Mandela to try and make a difference in the lives of those battling the elements, by starting a blanket drive.
Food4Futures is a Makhanda-based NPO, with its primary focus being on hunger alleviation, although they do address other areas of need as well. The organisation supplies food parcels to families who are unable to adequately feed themselves, by distributing grocery parcels every second week.
Mary Brit is the founder of Food4Futures.
She says her work gives her so much satisfaction, making her wanting to keep working. “I’m 74 years old and I keep going to work because of the amount of satisfaction and joy that comes my way and the love that comes my way from everyone. It’s extraordinary to receive goodwill from people,” says Brit.
On Mandela Day, people spread the most Ubuntu and lend a helping hand where they can and share kindness.
Food4Futures decided to show kindness through a blanket collection drive to donate to the most needy.
Nobesuthu Felicia Nkatazo, Care4Community manager at Food4Futures said, “I noticed that we usually get donations from people, clothes and stuff. But what I noticed this year is that we are short of blankets. So it’s cold and they are coming here looking for blankets, so that’s what struck my mind.
“It’s freezing, so people really need the blankets. So that’s what came to my mind and I just thought we should try to collect blankets as our Mandela Day.”
Nkatazo said that on certain occasions, they receive so may blankets they get overwhelmed, but in other moments, there are hardly any in their office. “So we started to collect more through this drive. The people that would receive the blankets are the ones that are on our list.”
The list has the information of people that the organisation knows are in need, as the list was a result of so many people coming to the organisation asking for help. Food4Futures staff then decided to establish a list of people by going to their homes and see their living conditions, as some of them do receive employment later on and be able to take care of themselves. They are then removed and another person is added to the list. The check up occurs every 6 months.
Food4Futures has four other projects that are dedicated to assisting people in the community.
Parking4Parcels, Care4Community, helping people get their IDs and supplying food, household items and shoes. This means that people are not limited to donating blankets.
The Blanket Drive began on 17 June 2024 and the number of blankets that the organisation targeted to collect was 200 blankets. Unfortunately they could not reach the targeted number of blankets. As they received less than 100 blankets and due to this they have extended the drive to the end of July. The blankets will then be distributed to people during the clothing distribution at the beginning of August 2024 and by then they are hopeful that they would have reached or exceeded the number of blankets.
