Multinational Non-Government Organization, Joint Aid Management (JAM) has distributed more than a million porridge take-home rations to children across South Africa who normally depend on school-feedings but have not been able to get them due to the Covid-19 pandemic which forced the closure of schools.
The project works across all nine South African provinces and in addition to food distribution, JAM is also working on drilling and equipping boreholes and water points in the Northern and Eastern Cape provinces, ensuring the provision of clean water to communities in desperate need during the coronavirus crisis, said JAM.
JAM was founded by Peter and Ann Pretorius in 1984, aimed at fighting hunger, poverty and malnutrition in Africa. Through partnerships with local governments, various organisations and donors, JAM has run programmes in Angola, Mozambique, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, South Sudan and Uganda.
“Our highly nutritious ‘super cereal’ provides the children at our JAM-supported ECD’s (Early Childhood Development) with approximately 75% of their required daily nutrients,” said David Brown, JAM’s South Africa Country Director.
“With approximately 3,000 distribution centres across all nine provinces, we are continuing to feed those normally fed through our school-feeding programmes, ensuring that they do not go hungry during this time.’’ With sponsorship from retailer Pick n Pay, JAM South Africa will reach an additional 12,000 families with 51 tonnes of food hampers consisting of sunflower oil, rice, maize meal and soap.
Brown said as a national beneficiary of fast food outlet KFC’s Add Hope initiative, JAM had expanded its focus to emergency food distribution, allowing it to reach an additional 4,000 families whose children would normally be recipients through the school feeding programme.
JAM has partnered with fast-food company, Nando’s which will be opening up some of its restaurants to cook meals for vulnerable communities. This will reach some 55,000 individuals with hot meals to be distributed by JAM and other aid groups.
The NGO also confirmed that another long-time donor, chemicals group AECI, through its foundation, had provided additional funding towards grocery and food items for 2,000 families, as well as handwashing stations to help curb the spread of the virus.
