Solidarity Fund urged to join us
A MEETING has been convened for the National Food Crisis Forum (NFCF) the South African Food Sovereignty Campaign (SAFSC) and the Cooperative and Policy Alternative Centre, an alliance partner of the SAFSC and which is co-ordinating its response to Covid-19.
We thank Seriti Institute, Foundation for Human Rights, Cooperative and Policy Alternative Centre and grass-roots community organisations for supporting the initiative.
We estimated that at least 30 million people would be food stressed under lockdown. Our food-relief mapping exercise, which has received 385 responses, confirms the importance of community-led food relief efforts in mitigating the crisis. They reach about 65 700 people a week, this costs about R6 005 648; 25% of these initiatives distribute food daily and 30.4% provide food to more than 500 people.
The government and the Solidarity Fund are absent in this context. Communities are mobilising resources but constraints are building.
We applaud the court victory by Equal Education to secure the reinstatement of school feeding schemes for about 9.6 million children. The judgment comes in the wake of other victories to open the food commons such as for informal traders and subsistence fishers, in which the NFCF has been involved.
However, the moment requires the government, the Solidarity Fund and civil society organisations to dialogue and work on people-led solutions. It is worrying and unacceptable that we, as a country, have not been able to have an integrated response to the worsening food crisis.
It is disappointing that the Solidarity Fund has not committed to an in-depth engagement with the NFCF.
We ask the Solidarity Fund to work with us to establish a national response. The 385 organisations involved in our mapping effort and the 110 organisations that have endorsed the NFCF strategy are ready to talk.
DORAH MAREMA | Women for Climate Justice
VISHWAS SATGAR AND JANE CHERRY |
Chairperson and executive manager of the Co-operative and Policy Alternative Centre, SA Food Sovereignty Campaign activists