Touch of Helping Grace’s need for food donations keeps increasing

MOKOPANE – “The Covid-19 pandemic was only the beginning of food cupboards running empty, and load-shedding is worsening the situation.”

Hester Nieman from the non-profit organisation, Touch of Helping Grace, says she currently provides 43 families with a food parcel every two weeks: “The need is increasing and the donations are decreasing.”

Hester adds that the reason for this is that businesses are still struggling after the pandemic and still, some businesses have to close their doors.

She says load-shedding also has an enormous impact.

“Businesses close during load-shedding, which then causes the workers to squeeze eight hours of work into four hours.”

Teretha Jannasch of the Suid-Afrikaanse Vrouefederasie shares these sentiments, saying they provide food to 36 families weekly and the numbers increase.

“Many families’ household income dropped during the pandemic, never to be returned to what it was prior. Then there are also cases where the salaries have remained the same while the cost of food, petrol and other items has risen. The cost of living is only getting worse and there are not the finances to keep up.”

The Mokopane Noodforum is also currently facing a major crisis. The organisation has approximately 75 families that they care for, of which a few are homeless.

This organisation asks the community to join hands and help to restock the food pantries.

“We ask for the basics such as flour, pasta, rice, canned food, salt, eggs and cleaning material, among others, but any donation will benefit a family in need,” Hester says.

She adds that these organisations also launched projects from their side to gather funds to buy food, but that it is not enough to meet the need.

“We have an urgent need to join hands with the community and businesses to save people from starvation.”