Diepsloot residents receive much-needed food parcels
DIEPSLOOT – Pensioners get a bag of essential items amid coronavirus extension from a variety of businesses aiming to help those in the township.
Members from Engen Dealers have come together with other businesses to raise money and allocate 1 000 food parcels to Diepsloot residents.
Two hundred of these parcels were handed out to residents on 10 April at Diepsloot Secondary School. Residents began lining up outside the school from 6am in order to collect a parcel.
In order to abide by the nationwide lockdown regulations, the South African National Defence Force was present outside the school to keep the peace and regulate foot traffic into the school and around the area. Collection of the parcels was first open to pensioners and residents who were not able to collect their parcels had them delivered to their homes. Each parcel contained pasta, cooking oil, sugar, tinned food, and hand sanitiser.
Spokesperson from the Engen Group, Tshepo Magadla said this is something that the Engen Dealers strive to do every year in helping the members of the Diepsloot community. One of their previous projects includes putting in Jojo Tanks in Diepsloot Secondary since the school did not have any water.
“The need is really dire. Some of the learners here live in child-headed households and depend heavily on the kitchen at the school,” said Magadla.
“Since schools are closed however, we are looking at ways to make sure those kids who depend on the school feeding programme also get food during lockdown.”
He added, “We are always glad to see the community involved. The principal and school governing committee are incredibly involved with the school, so we also working alongside them with this.
“The Educational Trust came on board with what we are trying to do. So we put money together to buy the groceries. Over R100 000 was raised with other facilities like free delivery to households and the school being provided”
Magadla lauded it as a success as many were happy to receive a parcel. “We aim to also have something like this again in the next week at the same place, but we’ll be also going deeper into the township.”
Bread trucks were also scheduled to come and distribute loaves of freshly baked bread to the pensioners. Everyone got up to three loaves each, with more left over for other residents lining up outside the school.
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