Mayor Masina offically closes the Ekurhuleni Food Bank

The executive mayor Mzwandile Masina officially closed the Ekurhuleni Covid-19 food bank on July 3 and distributed the last of the donations to the residents of eMandleni informal settlement in Wattville.

A resident who received a food parcel expressed her gratitude as she mentioned that she had to feed nine people and since the lockdown they have not had any form of income.

“I am grateful that I can feed the five children I stay with,” she said.

During Masina’s virtual address he highlighted that the food bank was one the most critical programmes that the metro has undertaken, as an initiative to ease the burden of losses of income that residents in the metro have been faced with, and a programme they are proud of.

The food bank launched on April 14, at the Fresh Produce Market in Springs, which was established as a distribution point where emergency relief donations in the metro would be received and distributed to distressed households.

“We recognised from the beginning that it would be impossible to facilitate this Food Bank in the absence of partnerships with businesses and civil society within and outside the metro.

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“The scale was simply too great, given the loss of revenue that the municipality is confronted with, at a time when basic services are absolutely critical, and a time during which we intend to provide them sustainably, it was critical that we bring all hands on deck,” said Masina

He added that it was for this reason that following the launch of the Food Bank, a circular was issued to business and stakeholders within the metro, inviting donations towards the Bank.

“Companies, organisations, and individual donors who wished to donate were issued with a food parcel content guide on items required.

“These also included personal protective equipment, in line with regulations of the lockdown.

“Donations delivered to the Food Bank were recorded through a donor’s registry form, where a standardised food parcel list was developed which consisted of 12 items that had to be distributed to households in distress at an estimated value of R500.”

Masina said the heart of this initiative was to ensure that vulnerable groups would not be left behind.

“It was for this reason that a sizeable proportion of the food parcels donated were given to a specific sectoral target group that includes child-headed households, members of the creative industry, vulnerable women who are victims and survivors of gender-based violence, hostel dwellers, military veterans, faith-based leaders, members of the LGBTIQA+ community, old-age homes and orphanages, members of the sports fraternity as well as sex workers.

“The response to the Food Bank has been exceptionally overwhelming.

“As of today, 123 organisations/donors have made donations of consumable and non-consumable goods to an estimated value of more than R10-million.

“This enabled us to provide food parcels to 32 721 distressed households consisting of 163 605 residents ,with an average household consisting of five people, with outliers of three to 15 members in a household.

“The Food Bank initiative was used by the South African Women in Dialogue (SAWID) and the United Nations Women (UN Women) as a case study for indigent strategies beyond Covid-19.Jullie Beya, who works in the mayor’s office, represented the metro before the United Nations and SAWID, explaining the significance and scale of this great initiative.

“Over the past two months, various national and international news agencies, including the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), have visited our metro to report on the Food Bank, cementing it as one of the most important interventions we have seen coming out of South Africa in response to the devastation of Covid-19,”he said.

“The success of the Ekurhuleni Central Food Bank is anchored on the donations that we received from generous companies and individuals, as well as the volunteers from our communities who worked extremely hard to ensure that we reach daily targets of almost 1 000 food parcels per day.

“I want to thank all these donors, who are too many to mention, but who stepped up when it was required of them to do so.

“It is often said that capital has no heart, but this initiative demonstrated that the private sector has the capacity to contribute meaningfully to the fashioning of a higher civilisation. As the executive mayor and as a resident of this metro, I am immeasurably grateful.”

Masina concluded by thanking the citizens of Ekurhuleni who were patient with them when they were confronted with slight logistical challenges.

“At no point did you hurl insults at us, at no point did you grow fatigued.

“This capacity to afford your government an opportunity to do right by you is demonstrative of the understanding on your part that while ours is not a perfect government, it is a government that is committed to giving dignity to its most vulnerable. And make no mistake, that is our commitment, and it is a commitment that we have never and will never betray.”