Umlazi Mega City was honored to get behind the Rise against Hunger feeding programme, where they hosted a food packaging event along with invited media, on March 29th at Umlazi Mega City’s food court area from 11am till 1pm.

The Umlazi Mega City volunteers Rise Against Hunger’s meal packaging program was set up on an assembly-line where highly nutritious dehydrated meals comprised of rice, soy, vegetables, and 23 essential vitamins and minerals, were packaged.

With the help of over 40 volunteers made up of tenants, media and staff, their aim of packing 10 000 meals in two hours, was achieved.

The packaged meals will provide much needed assistance to two local crèches, that of Tholulwazi Creche in Umlazi and Ikwezi Creche in Lamontville who will now be able to feed their children for a year. Between them, they currently educate 87 children on a daily basis.

Rise against hunger was founded in 1998, by united Methodist minister and US marine, Ray Buchanan. It was and continues to be driven by a vision of a world without hunger whose mission is to end hunger in our lifetime by providing food and life-changing aid to the world’s most vulnerable, and creating a global commitment to mobilize the necessary resources. Driving Rise against Hunger’s work is the recognition that ending hunger is more than just feeding people, which led Rise against Hunger to focus its feeding programs in areas where it can have a real impact and expand its hunger-fighting programs beyond meal packaging and distribution.

It’s also known that 66 million primary school age children attend classes hungry across the developing world and for every $1 spent on malnutrition prevention, it delivers $16 in economic returns according to 2016 Global Nutrition report.

“We at Umlazi Mega City’s vision in the present day is to entrench everything we do in improving the lives of our community in which we operate, hence our decision to get involved in this worthy endeavor,” said General Manager S’phume Khuzwayo.

This event provided the team of helpers the opportunity to participate in a hands-on hunger relief program, where they could do more than just provide a donation.

Seen at Umlazi’s Rise again hunger production line were Team Umlazi Mega City - Zama Malunga, Nokuthula Zwane, S'phume Khuzwayo, Zinhle Zungu, Nomkhosi Ngcobo.