Tru-Cape helps provide meals to the most hungry.

On Thursday, July 20, a cheque for R1,904,4000 was presented to Food Forward SA representing meals raised as part of Food Lover’s Hunger Month initiative, held in May this year.

Tru-Cape Fruit Marketing has supported this initiative since its inception, seven years ago. The cheque handover was at Lisa Educare in Wallace Dene, Cape Town, one of the beneficiaries of Food Forward SA.

Conrad Fick, Marketing Director of Tru-Cape Fruit Marketing, says that in 2020, Stats SA reported that almost 23,6% of South Africans suffered moderate to severe food insecurity, while almost 14,9% experienced severe food insecurity. “Another study suggested 1 in 5 South African households don’t have enough food to eat saying that 20% of South African households are food insecure. We all know that as the cost of living continues to rise, these figures will rise too,” he says.

Fick says that according to the United Nations, a staggering one-third or one billion tonnes of all food produced globally is lost or wasted. “So now, more than ever before, we need initiatives such as this one by Andy Du Plessis and his team at Food Forward SA to help reduce food waste and to deliver meals to the most vulnerable. We need initiatives such as Food Lover’s World Hunger Month’s campaign. Tru-Cape, and our apple and pear growers, know that with Food Forward’s help, 985,000 people daily across all nine provinces will have something nutritious to eat. We know it is not enough but it is something we can all work towards increasing,” Fick says.

Following the cheque handover,  Food Lover’s Market’s Andrew Milson said that 9.6 million meals had been raised since the start of the Hunger Month initiative. “In those first days when this was just a concept, Tru-Cape believed in us and came on board. Thank you to Tru-Cape and to our other partners,” he ends.

Andy Du Plessis says, “This year was the seventh consecutive year that FoodForward SA is privileged to be the beneficiary NPO of Food Lover’s Market’s World Hunger Month campaign. What an incredible journey it’s been, joining hands with Food Lover’s Market in the fight against hunger, along with their suppliers and customers, to ensure the success of an annual initiative that enables FoodForward SA to distribute nutritious meals to nearly a million vulnerable people a day, across all nine provinces.

Noronte Noto, principal of Lisa Educare, led a brief tour of the facilities following the cheque handover.