GARDEN ROUTE NEWS - Western Cape Premier Alan Winde's planned visit to the Garden Route Food Pantry on Sunday 18 July will go ahead. This was confirmed on Monday 12 July by Carl van Blerk, managing director of the Garden Route Food Pantry.
He said due to current Covid-19 regulations, Winde's visit will be adapted according to the risk and legal requirements on the day. He stressed that strict Covid-19 protocols will be followed, which means that the number of visitors will be limited.
The Garden Route Food Pantry was established by Van Blerk in January and was officially opened in February by Western Cape MEC of Human Settlements, Tertuis Simmers.
For Van Blerk it was a dream come true. He had dedicated over a decade to charity and community relief projects as one of the founding members of the Eden Lions Club.
He said over the years he had always dreamed of setting up a food bank to address the severe hunger that plagues the Garden Route.
"Altogether 27% of all children in South Africa are malnourished, and in the Garden Route we see some of the worst cases in families that are not coping with the financial effects of Covid-19," he said.
The Garden Route Food Pantry is an NGO that aims to address the massive wastage of food (a third of all food produced in SA goes to waste), to provide a range of highly nutritious foods. It also assists and trains feeding centres and soup kitchens to grow their own produce to feed their communities. All donations received and distributed are meticulously recorded and to date, close to 1 000 000 meals have already been sourced by the pantry for distribution across the seven municipalities of the Garden Route.
Aptly, Winde's visit on Sunday falls on Mandela Day. Van Blerk said he and his team are looking forward to sharing the details of current and new projects planned by the food pantry, one of which is a roll-out of Nutrilite™ Little Bits™ to 10 000 children in the Garden Route who will each receive a micro-nutrient supplement daily for a year, a project valued at over R17-million.
"It would be an honour to welcome the premier of the Western Cape in our midst," he said.
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