This Mandela Day, Pick n Pay and FoodForward SA have partnered for a national food drive with a goal to provide one million meals to beneficiaries of FoodForward SA. The campaign, which endorses the 2017 national Mandela Day theme 'Take Action Against Poverty', will culminate on 18 July.

 “Pick n Pay is FoodForward SA’s biggest retail partner,” says Suzanne Ackerman-Berman, director of transformation at Pick n Pay. “This food drive will boost their ability to provide much-needed food to their 600 beneficiary organisations, which feed 250,000 hungry people every day.”

In-store donations

The drive will take place at all Pick n Pay stores across South Africa. Volunteers will be in selected stores from 14 to 16 July handing out branded bags with a suggested list of items customers can purchase and donate. Customers can fill the bags with their donations and put them in specially marked containers in the front of the store. Participating stores will be listed on Pick n Pay’s Facebook page closer to the date.

The basics to purchase that are most needed are: rice, maize meal, spaghetti, samp and beans, lentils, pilchards, tuna, long life milk, oats, jam, peanut butter, cooking oil, sugar, and salt.

“This is an opportunity for Pick n Pay and its customers to make a real difference to people who go to bed and wake up hungry. In 2016 we donated 1,737 tonnes of surplus food to FoodForward SA, worth about R54 million. We know how generous our customers are, and this Mandela Day gives us the chance to join together to help our fellow South Africans who are in genuine need. We will use our vast distribution network and pay for all donated food to be collected, packed and transported. This is a massive logistical exercise but we’re all really excited about the real difference we can make," says Ackerman-Berman.

Once the food has been donated, LiebenLogistics (Pick n Pay’s transport supplier) will collect and deliver it to four packing centres around the country, where a Food Forward SA Mandela Day Corporate Packing event will take place on 18 July. 

Offer up your time

Andy du Plessis, managing director of FoodForward SA, “Millions of vulnerable people, mostly women and children, go hungry each day in South Africa, indicating that food insecurity is a real problem faced by a significant sector of our population. We need volunteers for helping to hand out bags at Pick n Pay and guide customers through the donation process. Those who would like to donate their 67 minutes for Mandela between 14 and 16 July and by packing on the 18th, can go to foodforwardsa.org to register.”

The venues for the corporate packing event on 18 July are: Cape Town’s Century City Conference Centre, Johannesburg’s Gallagher Convention Centre, Durban’s Olive Convention Centre, and Port Elizabeth’s FoodForward SA Port Elizabeth Warehouse.

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