Innovative fruit project helps feed children

FRESHBOX, a locally based non-government organisation, is selling boxes of fruit to raise funds to make a difference in the lives of learners at Carrington Primary School.

The man behind the concept is non other than New Zealand basketball player and member of KZN Marlins basketball team, Benjamin Constable. Benjamin said he arrived in South Africa after joining Peace Players International (PPI), whose goal is to unite, educate and inspire young people through basketball. In light of this, Benjamin started coaching basketball at Carrington Primary around two-and-a-half year ago.

Working with the children at the school, he became aware of their plight and came to realise that 98 per cent of the learners did not eat a nutritious breakfast or lunch.

Determined to help, Benjamin, with the aid of local businessman, Colin Francke, came up with a concept to feed the children at Carrington Primary School, by selling boxes of fresh fruit to the community. The fruit is ordered online and the proceeds raised go towards feeding the children at the school. The aim is to raise enough to provide all 709 Carrington Primary School learners, aged between four and 14, with a healthy breakfast and lunch every school day.

To effectively generate these resources, FreshBox sells subscriptions of weekly fruit boxes to communities. So far, FreshBox has 30 customers on board who support this worthy cause.

“The idea is to keep it as slick and efficient as we can. People are billed at the beginning of the month, and, once they’ve ordered their fruit via the website they get their fruit delivered to venues in Glenwood where they then pick it up,” said Benjamin.

There are 25 different fruits to choose from with the purchase of a 3kg box feeding around one to two children, a 5kg box feeding two children and the proceeds from a 7kg box feeding up to three children. Customers subscribe at www.freshbox.co.za and can pick up their fruit from either Coffee Tree, Prep Room, Glenwood Bakery or KZNSA Gallery.

“To fill orders, FreshBox purchases high quality bulk fruit at the Durban Fresh Produce Market at heavily discounted rates. We fill our customers’ orders and send all the remaining bulk fruit to our beneficiaries. Generally, for every FreshBox sold, we send twice that amount of fruit to a child in need,” said Benjamin.

With 199 days in the school year, and 709 learners at Carrington Primary School Freshbox is looking at providing children with 141 000 breakfasts and 141 000 lunches.

Plans have even been put in place to deal with organic waste produced through the project. FreshBox will partner with Grovida’s environmentally conscious garden store to compost the waste and create a sustainable herb garden for Carrington Primary School families to both eat and sell, to buy more healthy food.

According to Benjamin, studies show that nutritional habits change not just from increasing access to healthy food, but also from education. He said FreshBox would look to partner with local universities to begin nutritional programmes for learners and their families and seek motivated volunteers within the community. Future plans, according to Benjamin include expanding the project to include hospitals and clinics where they will target pregnant mothers.