30 tons of farm produce weekly

Video

GEORGE NEWS & VIDEO - The newly appointed manager of the SA Harvest Garden Route branch, Carl van Blerk, is excited about the prospect of receiving about 30 tons of fresh farm produce every week.

Launched by Van Blerk in December 2020 as the Garden Route Food Pantry, the facility affiliated with SA Harvest in November this year.

Van Blerk told George Herald that the new branch in George is the fourth SA Harvest branch in South Africa. The new banner comes with many advantages, including more access to food resources.

He said the Garden Route does not have many significant food manufacturing plants. Though there are many farms in the area, most are relatively small. In Gauteng there are large factories and farms that contribute to food re-distribution for poverty relief.

Before the new partnership, it was very difficult to find the amount of food needed to address the shortages in the Garden Route.

Video: Exciting times ahead for the new SA Harvest

Milestone

SA Harvest has an agreement with a national farming network that provides hundreds of tons of food to the recovery network each month. This agreement will also benefit the Garden Route branch, with an estimated 30 tons of fresh farm produce being delivered every week. "This is a huge milestone for our local branch," said Van Blerk.

"We would not have been able to secure these products without the support of SA Harvest nationally."

The biggest challenge is not a shortage of food, but rather the logistics to move available food. "The reality is that there is no food shortage. South Africa produces around 30 million tons of food per year, of which 10 million tons are dumped. The biggest challenge is logistics and getting the food to people that need it most. Transport is expensive, yet critical."

At a time when most people are preparing for festivities and celebrations, so many in our community face quite the opposite circumstances. SA Harvest is pushing hard to get food out to registered soup kitchens and feeding centres in preparation for the holidays, when many children will not get a regular meal.

Be involved

People can get involved by dropping off a donation at SA Harvest's premises in Glaze Street. "Even if it is only one tin. If a person has nothing and someone brings a tin of mixed veg, then they have something to eat," he says.

The need is great. It is estimated that at least 35 000 families live well below the breadline in our region, which means that more than 150 000 people are in critical need.

Since opening its doors 12 months ago, the centre has provided more than 1,2 million meals and it aims to expand the distribution by acquiring a truck to distribute food in the region.

The facility is the officially registered relief coordination body appointed by the Garden Route District Municipality and is supported by the local B-municipalities in the region.