Since 1958 the Peninsula School Feeding Association (PSFA) has been living up to its mantra, ‘You can’t teach a hungry child,’ by putting meals on the table for thousands of learners every day. In its 66-year history, the NGO has cooked and delivered in excess of two billion meals to close on 200 educational institutions in and around the Western Cape.
Hunger is a stark reality
A UCT report reveals that three out of four children go hungry every day, that’s because 30% of our population live in poverty with food insecurity. Statistics show that hungry children are not able to concentrate at school or simply stop attending. By providing a regular, balanced, nutritious meal to learners, it not only fills their bellies but also reduces short term hunger, enhances the children’s ability to learn and increases school attendance.
New menu
What initially began – in 1958 – with a warm bowl of soup and bread has grown into a hot breakfast of maize meal and a cooked lunchtime meal, consisting of a protein, carbohydrate and vegetables. Today (July 17) saw these humble, yet nutritious, warm and filling meals revamped. After 16 years, the PSFA menu has been given a makeover. It still includes the staples such as samp, rice, sugar beans, soya, pilchards in tomato sauce, fresh vegetables and fruits. However, there’s now a variety of seasonal vegetables and fruit and meals are being prepared differently – with an addition of noodles, chicken livers, soya variants and raisins.
Tasty basics
To showcase just how delicious these simple staples can be, renowned celebrity chef and PSFA ambassador – Zola Nene – revitalised these local flavours, added her own dash of creativity and pizzazz to create meals for guests at the launch to sampleThese tasty treats included:
- Canapes of chicken liver pate en croute and creamy samp croquettes
- A tasting menu of
- Pilchard fish cakes served with apple and cabbage slaw
- Imfino pasta
- Rice and chicken soya bowls
- Sugar bean curry, uPuthu and Ushantini
‘Food is an essential part of my community and culture and I am passionate about promoting local ingredients. I enjoy the challenge of reworking humble staples to produce wholesome, tasty and nutritious food,’ says Zola Nene. ‘The work that PSFA does is incredible. They are not simply serving a plate of food to thousands of school children in the Western Cape but are changing lives. I feel privileged to be part of a solution to alleviating hunger.’
Director of PSFA, Petrina Pakoe, is a product of the PSFA school feeding programme. ‘I know what it’s like to go to bed hungry and the value of that daily meal,’ she says. ‘I am who I am today, thanks to PSFA. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for them, which is why I am so passionate about providing meals for children in need.’
‘But’, she explains, ‘it goes beyond a simple plate of food, it is about making sure the meals are filling and nutritious. Adequate nutrition is essential for the growth and development of children and to help combat malnutrition and related health issues,’ says Pakoe. ‘And, although RDA differs for different age groups and between genders, our meals have been analysed by nutritionist, Helen Donkin, in terms of the macro and micronutrients, minerals and vitamins.’
Made with love, served with care
An essential part of the PSFA programme is support from the food industry, donors as well as volunteers who help prepare, cook and serve the meals. These are mostly unemployed parents who are trained in menu development and given the tools to make it happen. This includes catering equipment – such as pots, pans, serving spoons, knives, colanders, potato peelers, chopping boards, can openers, gas stoves and bottles along with crockery and cutlery for the learners.
‘Some schools do not have the facilities to support their feeding programme but thankfully, due to generous donations, we have been able to install ready-to-use kitchens at 135 schools, complete with plumbing, electricity, heat extraction, storage facilities, security gates and window bars,’ says Pakoe.
How you can help
‘Feeding is what we do,’ says Pakoe, ‘Over the years we have been fortunate to fulfil our vision and expand the programme. Interest on investments allows us to cover all operating expenses. This means 100% of donations are directed exclusively to the school feeding programme.’
It is thanks to donations, the generosity of business and bulk buying that PFSA is able to keep costs to a minimum. For this pilot phase of the menu, the budget – until March 2025 – average out to R4-67 per learner per day or R888-00 per year to supply two meals a day, over the 190 school days. A donation to sponsor meals for a child, for a year, is still set at R670-00, with PSFA subsidising the difference during this pilot phase.
If you’d like to help, PSFA offer options from monthly donations, to feeding a child or a class for a month or a year, adopting a school, sponsoring a kitchen or adding PSFA as a MySchoolCard beneficiary.
They say that ‘people who give you food, give you their heart.’ PSFA, the donors and volunteers are truly giving their hearts to thousands of learners in the Western Cape.
