Shoprite donates 500 food packs for needy
THREE thousand people in Missionvale will not have to worry about going hungry this Christmas after Shoprite delivered R50 000 worth of food to the Missionvale Care Centre yesterday.
Responding to reports in The Herald this week about extreme hunger and malnutrition in the Nelson Mandela Bay area, the Shoprite Group donated 500 food parcels.
Esmerelda Essex, from Shoprite, said her staff had been deeply moved after reading an article about 20 children who had died of hunger in Nelson Mandela Bay since March last year.
“I was crying after I read it,” Essex said.
She said the 500 food parcels, valued at R50 000, contained tins of baked beans and fish, maize meal, sugar, tea bags, rice, salt, soup packets and fortified porridge.
“We added salt because a lot of people we have helped in other projects told us they needed salt,” she said.
Essex said they wanted to respond as soon as possible and personnel at the Kenako store had spent hours packing the parcels.
Two hundred bags were delivered yesterday and more will be done today.
“My staff said their backs were sore but they will never stop packing,” she said. “We were all very moved.” Shoprite regional manager Les Ferreira and Kenako store manager Marvin O’Reilly also helped to unload the parcels yesterday.
Linda van Oudheusden, from the Missionvale Care Centre, said they were overjoyed by the donation.
“We will start distributing the bags next week, first to those who cannot leave their homes and by Friday to our regulars at the soup kitchen,” she said.
“We are extremely grateful for this donation.
“Nobody wants people to go hungry over Christmas.
“We are hoping that this food will help feed 3 000 people.”
Josita Jacobs, who heads the Nutrition and Wellness Programme at the Missionvale Care Centre, could not stop smiling after receiving the food parcels.
“My store is full again,” she said. “This is wonderful.”
We are extremely grateful. Nobody wants people to go hungry over Christmas