Sun International rises against hunger
Staff from Carnival City joined their Sun International colleagues at Time Square in Menlyn on Tuesday, last week, to commemorate International Mandela Day.
The day saw over 900 spirited volunteers packing meal parcels for children in need.
Among the volunteers were the Minister of Women in the Presidency Susan Shabangu; the Swiss Ambassador, Her Excellency Helene Budliger Artieda; the United States Charge d’Affaires Jessye Lapenn, and representatives from the embassies of Chile, Columbia and the United Kingdom.
Miss South Africa Demi-Leigh Peters-Nel and other local celebrities, including Zweli Dube and Sophie Ndaba, were also in the ‘packing lines’ along with members of the media.
They worked alongside representatives from Sun International’s Time Square, Carnival City and head office including the group’s Chief Executive Officer Anthony Leeming, Chief Strategy and Operating Officer Rob Collins, Chief Group Operating Officer Thabo Mosololi, Socio Economic Development manager Nancy Ncube, and Time Square’s general manager Brett Hoppé in packaging lines to pack meal parcels for 67 minutes.
The target was to pack 106 000 meals, but this number was exceeded.
By the end of the day, 107 136 meals and a total of 496 boxes were packed at Time Square.
The initiative, in collaboration with Rise Against Hunger (previously Stop Hunger Now), was part of a nationwide drive, with similar food packing events taking place simultaneously at three Sun International properties, namely The Boardwalk in Port Elizabeth, GrandWest in Cape Town and the Wild Coast Sun in Port Edward, as well as four other venues across the country.
The national target was to pack three million meals on the day.
Each meal box contained 36 meal bags, which in turn, contained six meals each.
The contents were carefully planned to provide for the nutritional needs of children and included rice, soya, soup mix and a vitamin sachet containing 23 essential vitamins and minerals.
“Rise Against Hunger does tremendous work to alleviate the plight of South Africa’s hungry,” said Hoppé.
“Alleviating hunger is something that is close to our hearts and we feel privileged to be part of this meaningful Mandela Day initiative, which has a tremendous, far-reaching impact across needy communities.
“We thank all our volunteers who worked tirelessly to package meals.
“You have made a difference.”
The 2017 food packing challenge was buoyed by the International Mandela Day event in 2015 when some 1.2-million meals were packed on one day.
This was followed by the Follow the Sun meal-packing drive last year when just over three million meals were packed.
