In their quest to promote and support community based-organisations, Shoprite has decided to brand their delivery trucks with pictures featuring members of the Alexandra community cooperative, Suthani Food Garden.
The vegetable garden is sponsored by Shoprite and Trees for Africa and was started by 50 members of the Far East Bank community in 2010 on land that was previously used as a dump site. The community members turned this barren piece of real estate into productive land.
The cooperative sells its products to the community and supplies local schools. Most of its founding members are no longer involved and only seven remain active and committed to the initial goal of feeding local families. However, every year they have managed to provide fresh vegetables for the community.
One of the founding members, senior citizen Elias Mabasa said they were very pleased with Shoprite’s support and for making them Mzansi’s oldest celebrities.
“We are very pleased and touched that Shoprite has recognised what we do in the community,” Mabasa said.
“They have been helping us with a lot of things such as seeds, tools and they also installed the water system we use to watering the garden. They’ve been very helpful to us.
“Suthani is the oldest garden cooperative in this area, it has survived many challenges, however, because of our uniform vision to feed the poor it has overcome all those challenges.”
The garden’s administrator Thami Nkosi said the cooperative was in dire need of administration supplies.
“We call upon anyone who can help donate stationery and office furniture to us. Our admin office is struggling with [the lack of] working materials like printers and papers. If there is anyone willing to lend a helping hand they can just come and drop off their donations,” Nkosi said.
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