New billboard campaign challenges politicians and businesses to close the food gap

Child hunger and resulting malnutrition is a national emergency so consequential that it should be the number one issue for politicians and businesses ahead of next year’s general elections. Already, one in five South African households don’t have enough food on the table, and times are getting tougher as food prices soar.

This is why public innovator, the DG Murray Trust (DGMT) and Grow Great, a national zero-stunting organisation, have launched a national advocacy campaign, involving over 300 billboards, to demand urgent action to make basic nutritious food more affordable.

The first set of billboards is a picture of a child making his mark at a voting booth with the words ‘I vote for food’. It’s a challenge to every political party to respond to the growing food crisis by ensuring that household food security is a central objective of every election manifesto. “Our campaign features a series of incisive messages that present child nutrition as a national priority for public health, education and economic growth,” says David Harrison, DGMT’s Chief Executive Officer.

“South Africa has the worst record of household food insecurity compared to middle-income countries of similar per capita GDP. The last national survey, done in 2016, found that 27% of children under the age of five had stunted growth – a proxy for impaired brain development,”

Harrison explains. The relationship between malnutrition and low education outcomes is highlighted in the second set of billboards of a uniformed schoolboy conveying a lesson to a group of adults with the words ‘if I grow well, I learn well’ written on a chalkboard. This message makes the point that without good nutrition our children’s bodies and brains are deprived of the fuel they need to grow and develop. Stunted children are more likely to drop out of school, struggle to find employment and live in poverty as adults.

The consequence is successive generations of children unable to reach their full potential. The third set of billboards show a girl confidently seated on an office desk overlooking a cityscape with the message ‘good nutrition today is good for business tomorrow’.

“According to the World Bank, high stunting rates are one of the main reasons for South Africa’s dismal economic growth because our country doesn’t have a sufficient human capital pipeline to drive productivity. But if we ensured that all children had enough food, our long-term economic prospects would be radically different,” says Harrison.

These billboards also aim to build public support for a bold new proposal championed by DGMT and Grow Great earlier this year – a proposal that requires food producers, retailers and the government to work together to reduce the cost of 10 nutritious foods by at least 30%.

These items are eggs, dried beans and lentils, tinned fish, fortified maize meal, peanut butter, rice, amasi, soya mince, 4-in-1 soup mix, and powdered full cream milk – many are already staple pantry items in South African households. What’s in the proposal? The proposal involves food manufacturers and retailers agreeing to waive the mark-ups of at least one product label of each of the ‘10 best buys’. Government would then show its support by agreeing to provide a rebate to retailers and manufacturers.

A fourth set of billboards acknowledges that times are tough and invites parents and caregivers to contact Grow Great to learn more about the 10 best buys. “Civil society organisations can do their part by raising awareness about the 10 best buys and sharing the resources and information we’ve made available on our platforms, like our WhatsApp number 060 073 3333,” says Dr Edzani Mphaphuli, Grow Great executive director.

Good nutrition cannot only be the responsibility of the Department of Health, Mphaphuli adds. “Given what we know about the consequence of child malnutrition on households and the economy, we need the whole of society to mobilise to turn things around.” “We call on the government, food producers, wholesalers and retailers to stand in solidarity with South African families to close the food gap,” she concludes.