Local child-headed households get help from Feed the Nation
Each food hamper is valued at over R500 and comprises essential grocery items, such as maize meal, rice, soup mix, flour, soya mince, cooking oil, salt and soap and fresh vegetables.
Feed the Nation Foundation continues to provide much-needed food assistance to child-headed households across the country, with recent deliveries of food parcels to learners at Bafo Chiko Primary School, Actonville Primary School and Lerutle Primary, all located in the Benoni area.
A child-headed household often has a living parent or guardian but is without parental care or income, which means the child is forced to assume the parental role of supporting the household.
Suzanne Ackerman-Berman, transformation director at Pick in Pay and trustee of Feed the Nation Foundation, said the need to support vulnerable families is greater now than ever, as communities are having to deal with the economic aftermath of the pandemic.
“There are many instances where teenagers are running a home while still attending school or working,” she said.
“We’ve even come across incidents where children as young as nine are having to support a four-year-old sibling.”
Each food hamper is valued at over R500 and comprises essential grocery items, such as maize meal, rice, soup mix, flour, soya mince, cooking oil, salt and soap and fresh vegetables, and is expected to provide food support for a family of four for up to one month.
What started as the Feed the Nation campaign has provided over 30 million meals in the form of food hampers to date, in partnership with funders, Pick n Pay customers, suppliers and welfare organisations.
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This collective effort has not only helped feed schoolchildren, but shelters, aged-care facilities, orphanages and other vulnerable communities have also benefited during what has become an ongoing crisis.
By the end of this round of deliveries, the third initiative over the past year to provide food assistance to child-headed households, over 15 000 families nationally will have received food hampers, amounting to the total value of more than R8-million.
“We continue to urge customers to join us in feeding the nation. A donation of just R21 at of our Boxer or Pick n Pay till points will help feed someone one meal a day for a week,” said Ackerman-Berman.
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