According to a report titled “Women and Poverty: The South African Experience”, published in the International Journal of Women’s Studies, Johanna Kehler, affirms that poor black women’s access to resources, opportunities, education, growth, and wealth is severely limited.
On a mission to empower women in disadvantaged area’s in South Africa, The Tiger Brands Foundation’s in-school nutrition programme assigned food-handlers in different communities. Director of The Tiger Brands Foundation Eugene Absolom said more than 430 food-handlers are receiving an opportunity to contribute to their communities through one of the country’s oldest and far-reaching in-school breakfast programme.
He says these food-handlers are making a living and also participating in a national effort to end food insecurity.
The majority of these food-handlers are women,” said Absolom.The Foundation also established a network of school-based food-handling facilities, each at a cost of about R500 000, to prepare hot breakfast for learners every school day.
A great deal of this food preparation process is handled by women drawn from communities that have schools participating in the breakfast programme. It reaches more than 100 schools across the country. In each school food-handlers, who have received SAQA accredited training, now receive regular income.
The Foundation was initially launched to to bring about positive socio-economic impact in underprivileged areas in South Africa.Since inception, the foundation provides hot nutritious breakfast meals to more than 75 000 learners across the country.
He says the Foundation developed a model to meet its primary mandate, which continues to be reviewed periodically in consultation with key stakeholders, to ensure that it is still living up to its strategic intent.“Drawing our dedicated teams of food-handlers from the communities, where we offer breakfast to the learners was a deliberate act in line with our strategic goal,” added Absolom.
He explained that the goal is to make sure that the Foundation’s presence in these communities is felt not only through ending food insecurity for the learners but by also injecting some much-needed financial resources.”We continue to appeal to other organisations to join the effort to end food insecurity while also participating in the development of previously disadvantaged communities,” concluded Absolom.
