For the sixth year, Tsogo Sun Hotels (https://www.tsogosun.com/) is placing the power of its venues and its people behind supporting the Rise Against Hunger campaign for Mandela Day, providing the venue for thousands of volunteers to pack nutritional meals at Sandton Convention Centre, as well as funds and volunteers for packing of meals in three cities around the country.
Initially operating as Stop Hunger Now, the Rise Against Hunger Africa Hunger Eradication programme, which this year celebrates its 10th anniversary, includes raising funds for meals, meal packaging events, and distributing meals through a results-oriented nutrition programme, ECD Connect, that monitors and evaluates the progress of beneficiaries to ensure maximum impact. The target this year is to pack 3 million meals in nine cities during Mandela Month, with an anticipated 316 000 meals being packed at Sandton Convention Centre alone.
The biggest packaging event will again be hosted at Sandton Convention Centre (https://www.tsogosun.com/sandton-convention-centre-scc), where 80 Tsogo Sun staff members will participate in 67 minutes of meal packing during the course of the day. Over the six years that Sandton Convention Centre has been a venue partner, Tsogo Sun Hotels’ contributions in venues, meals and refreshments and accommodation have amounted to close on R1 million.
Some of South Africa’s favourite personalities will also be adding the power of their voices to the event, packing boxes and raising awareness of the need for nutritional support for children in non-government supported ECD centres. They include soccer legend Lucas Radebe, Shashi Naidoo, Chris Japhta, Nicole da Silva and Kerishnie Naicker.
Andrew Hosking, Tsogo Sun Hotels Operations Director for the Gauteng Northern region, says the primary focus of Tsogo Sun’s CSI initiatives is education. “Hunger has a highly detrimental effect on children’s efforts to learn. The body slows down physical and mental activities to compensate for the lack of food intake. Hungry children generally lose the desire to play, to study, and to take initiative. We’re proud to rise alongside Rise Against Hunger in an effort to actively combat the scourge of poverty and improve children’s chances of a better future.”
