SA Harvest celebrated its 4th anniversary last month. In this time we have delivered 48 million nutritious meals to hungry people all over South Africa at an average cost of R0.90c per meal, we’ve grown from one truck and a driver (Dodo Manisi who is now Western Cape ops manager) to four fully operational branches in Cape Town, Joburg, Durban and Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape, and we now have almost 30 staff in this magnificent team. It’s been quite ride!
Operating an NGO of this size requires continuous fiscal and food – that would have gone to waste – donations and this is often challenging especially post-COVID where donor fatigue has become a significant challenge. But the resilience and dedication of our team, whatever the situation, is inspiring and, I believe, this is underpinned by our clear communal purpose. We are all invested in our mission to end the injustice of hunger in South Africa and committed to eradicating the suffering of the millions of men, women and especially children millions of whom going to sleep hungry every night.
It is this perseverance and willingness to get on with it that makes me feel so proud of the SA Harvest team. Together, every day, we collect the rescued food that would have gone to landfill and deliver it to our amazing beneficiaries who feed people daily. At the same time, we are giving our utmost to increasing our supply of food and our supply of fiscal donations. But we understand that challenges like these are a natural part of the ups and downs of any business and that keeping in touch with our purpose is the secret to success.
Turning to operational issues, I am pleased to say that the Lusikisiki project is developing well. This is a very important project for all of us. It is our implementation, in practice, of the integration of our systemic solutions with charity feeding in order to succeed in our mission.
We are dedicated to the success of this model for ultimately solving the problem of the injustice of hunger in South Africa and for becoming an example for the rest of our nation.
We are hugely grateful for all the support from our magnificent food and money donors who have made it possible for SA Harvest to do such magnificent work in the last four years. We hope to continue working with you all for years to come and, together, finally eradicating hunger in our land,
Thank you.