Sun City, a Sun International resort, is in the midst of a feeding project that aims to provide food items to local communities, schools, and home-based care organisations.

The project was started last October to coincide with World Food Day, which is a day the World Health Organisation has set aside to raise awareness of the dire need for food. The action-oriented campaign promotes global food safety awareness and calls upon countries and decision makers, the private sector, civil society, United Nations organisations and the general public to take action.

This Food Hunger Relief/Maize Project is a partnership between Sun City, Rise Against Hunger, First Rand Bank and local supplier Lumbela Paints & Projects. The partnership made the initiative possible through sponsorship.

To get the programme off the ground, local community stakeholders’ engagements also had to take place with various institutions such as Moses Kotane Local Municipality; traditional authorities such as Bakgatla ba Kgafela, Bakubung ba Ratheo, Batlhako ba Leema and the Royal Bafokeng Nation; the Department of Education as well as the Department of Social Development.

Several organisations assisted with packaging and distributing the hampers, including the Chefs Association of South Africa, the Royal Bafokeng Institute Hospitality School, and It Belongs to Me non-governmental organisation.

So far, 800 food parcels have been arranged (comprising of general basic grocery items, Rise Against Hunger Meal Packs and a 12,5 kg Maize Meal Bag). In addition, 400 bags of maize meal will be donated to schools in the broad local and doorstep communities of Sun City Resort.

The other primary target beneficiaries include welfare organizations such as Early Learning Centres, Special Needs Schools, Old Age Homes, Foster Care Homes including some home-based care organisations.

The distribution of these food packs is still underway, and was targeted to finish by 23 October 2020. Due to logistical hiccups also exacerbated by lockdown, it has rolled over into January 2021.

Khumo Magano, Socio-Economic Development & Community Engagement Manager for Sustainability at Sun City Resort, says that one of South Africa’s Sustainable Development Goals is to eradicate poverty, and this is something that Sun City believes can be done with the help of corporates and civil society.

“This is certainly an area that we will continue to support as we believe that full stomachs are precursors to achieving other goals, such as education,” concluded Magano.

Ends.