Soul Food and Oratile ECD Centre on a mission to eradicate hunger in Diepsloot

A local humanitarian organisation, Soul Food, has partnered with an early child development (ECD) centre in an effort to eradicate hunger and fight starvation in Diepsloot.

As part of its weekly delivery, Soul Food’s truck of goodies visited Diepsloot-based Oratile ECD Centre to deliver tons of food parcels which were distributed to dozens of poor families.
Impact manager at Soul Food Simone Newman said the organisation has been working with different stakeholders since the introduction of lockdown to ensure that hungry people get meals every day.

Newman said, “In normal times, 14 million South Africans go to bed hungry every night and 85% of them are children. As the Covid-19 lockdown continues and our economy capitulates, the situation gets worse every day.

“This number is now approaching 30 million and is fast becoming a humanitarian disaster. Our organisation has partnered with a number of community-based organisations to provide and feed the hungry in Diepsloot.”

She explained that Soul Food collected surplus food and donations from farms, supermarkets, food, hotels and restaurants and, from their distribution centre, deliver these hundreds of distribution areas such as schools, churches, council offices, orphanages, shelters and old age homes.

The founder and chairperson of Oratile, Abram Kgari, said food donated by Soul Food has made a positive impact on the lives of many people in the area. “When the government introduced Covid-19 lockdown restrictions last year, many people came to us to ask for food. Most of them would come during lunchtime when we dish out food for children,” he said.

Kgari concluded, “We decided to start providing meals for both adults and children every day to feed them because we realised that people had nothing to eat with their families.
“Soul Food came on board and their contribution made a huge difference in people’s lives.”