The year 2023 is a big year for us. This is the year we will be celebrating 20 years of serving the children of the Garden Route. During the year we will be organizing a few things to mark this important mile stone. The focus will be to express our gratitude to our donors, volunteers and school staff. Here is a snapshot of the twenty years.

Twenty years ago we started with just R1 800 and 60 children These children were from two pre-primary schools in Knysna and they were given a breakfast of a highly nutritious e’Pap porridge each weekday morning. Careful monitoring over six months produced encouraging results. The children’s health and concentration improved. With initial support from the Knysna Methodist Church and Knysna Rotary, the project started to expand.

By 2020 the project has expanded to over 120 centers stretching some 100 kilometers along the Cape Southern Coast. Enthusiastic volunteers and partner NGOs handle distribution and monitoring. Since the Covid19 crisis commenced and schools were closed, we have expanded our feeding to include families. Our active outlets included a range of schools, children’s places-of-care and many soup kitchens. During 2020 we have provided over one million meals.

The key goal is to improve the health and hence the prospects of as many children as we can, by providing regular and highly nutritious meals through established community structures. In addition to feeding, we have projects that supply pre-schools with outdoor play equipment, stationery, educational equipment & book boxes. All of these improve the lives of the children. We also provide bursaries to assist pre-school teachers to receive formal training. Approximately 80% of our annual expenditure is used for the purchase of food and a further 14% for other beneficiary benefits.