Former pageant queen and model bringing relief to hungry children

Children in impoverished communities marked by severe food shortages are doubly vulnerable when school’s out and the festive season beckons, said Gina Athanassiou, the 37-year-old owner of Holonathi, a for-profit distributor and manufacturer of nutritional food products.

“While we have stocked up on Christmas fare, the have-nots (like under-nourished children) are in danger of starvation.

“That’s because the little ones do not have access to the only meal they might eat that day – the one served to them at school,” she said.

The former pageant titleholder and model, who is also the only South African woman heading up a food manufacturing company, explained that Holonathi specialises in the provision, manufacturing and distribution of fortified staple foods using locally sourced maize.

The need for intervention, particularly during the school holidays, is critical.

The business model for Holonathi is to supply food products to corporates or charities already helping feed communities.

These products are then delivered to schools in need.

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“Schools buy in bulk and distribute from one large bag,” Athanassiou explained.

“During Covid we had to find an alternate delivery system, packing 1kg bags that would last a child for the month, thus removing the risk of communal sharing during the pandemic.

“As schools close for the December holidays, Holonathi will send out extra packs in the hope that they will feed children for the duration of the holidays.

“We try, where it is possible, to fill the gap in those impoverished areas where children do not have access to school meals.”

The malnutrition statistics for South Africa are alarming, exacerbated exponentially by the global pandemic, Covid-19.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) estimates that without intervention, Covid-19 will result, globally, in a 15% rise in the number of children needing critical nutrition services.

This, a Unicef report said, would throw an additional 140 million children into poverty and see up to 10 000 more child deaths per month.

Two in three children in low- and middle-income countries cannot afford a nutritious diet and with Covid-19, an increase in the risk of all forms of malnutrition.

In South Africa, acute malnutrition (including moderate and severe forms) remains a significant underlying cause of child mortality, being associated with one-third of all child in-hospital deaths.

Children suffering from acute malnutrition are known to have weak immune systems and are prone to infections which could lead to death. If they survive, they are more susceptible to being stunted and having long-term developmental delays.

Athanassiou believes the narrative around food security, social corporate investment and nutiriton needs tweaking.

“The conversation needs to move to people who are actually on the ground.

“Talk of needing to mobilise nutrition and make food accessible to people; talk of teaching people how to grow gardens and be self-sustainable is good – in an ideal world.

“I’m an advocate for that since it’s important to have fresh produce, to get a variety of foods – all key for a healthy gut.

“But, step one, step back.”

She said meeting the immediate basic needs of people should come first.

“If you look at an investment with regards to, say, planting a community garden, or investing in education, or financial institutions offering education on how to save.

“It’s all good. But people cannot focus when they’re hungry. The success rate of any venture is not high when the basic needs of people are not being met.”

Athanassiou said that once these core requirements have been met ‘jointly, together, we can tackle education and access to fresh food; gardens, financial well being, saving, educating tertiary education etc. You can’t do the one alone’.

Passionate about the eradication of hunger and the protection of vulnerable children, Gina said Holonathi’s nutritional formulation was carefully researched and implemented.

“One of the initial challenges was how to create a product that targets both hunger and malnutrition. It’s easy to create a Rolls Royce product that targets malnutrition, but it is inadvisable,” she said.

“If, for example, you create porridge for people with Aids or TB – and you label it saying it’s very good for the immune system – studies have shown that people won’t eat it.

“They’d choose mielie meal because the fortified food is for the sick people, even though the meal was just filled with vitamins for someone with a compromised immune system.

“Holonathi produces a palatable, acceptable-to-all porridge which we don’t have to convince people to eat. Our product tastes like mielie meal, people love it, and it has a high protein content.

“Besides the fact that maize is ordinarily fortified, we enrich it further with vitamins and minerals – using our own unique mix that we’ve designed – so it meets the requirements of each individual daily so they can function individually and optimally.”

About Gina Athanassiou:
• Born in Johannesburg and raised on a smallholding in Eikenhof, in the south of Johannesburg.
• Crowned Miss South Africa Teen 2000 aged 16.
• Signed by IMG Models and moved to Paris in 2002.
• First South African model to appear on the cover of Marie Claire in 2008.
• Voted FHM sexiest woman in the world and South Africa’s most Stylish Woman in 2007.
• In a relationship with Advocate Lafras Uys.
• Mother to baby Lucah Rose Uys born January 14.

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