Grateful for the past – Optimistic for what is to come Shelley
Our drive for sustainability is bearing fruit. The expanded leadership team is working very well and there is a sense of energy and excitement. Critical roles are being backed up and best of all we are having a ball.
As I look back on last year, and indeed the last 23 years, I feel overwhelmed with gratitude. We have been able to benefit thousands of precious young children, and it’s all because of teamwork.
This week Pam Jacobs, my colleague, and I visited some prospective little schools which are standing in line hoping to receive e’Pap when we have the resouces to provide it. We vet all applicants to make sure they will use it responsibly and have a safe clean space to store it. We then look for a suitable volunteer and additional donors to fund the expansion.
Our journey this morning was an eye opening one, as we drove off the beaten track to locate these little home based “schools.” The terrain was very rough and we wove in-between many shacks. We were reminded of how many children still need our nourishing e’Pap. The women caring for these children are loving and caring and doing their very best with very meagre resources.
To our team of volunteers, donors, cooks and leaders, we say a huge thank you. Together we have been a blessing to thousands and thousands of children, and we will continue to do so.
Busy and happy serving the children of the Garden Route Pam
The year 2026 is off to a flying start. Feeding at all three towns is in full swing and tons of e’Pap have been distributed. We continue to provide e’Pap to over 5,000 pre-school children every weekday across more than 114 schools. Several new pre-schools have reached out to us for support, but before we can extend our programme to them, we need to find dedicated volunteers and donations to assist at these schools. The principals and teachers of these schools are doing such wonderful work at their schools and ensuring that the children are fed and safe. We look forward to including them in the e’Pap family.
Our current volunteers are doing incredible work, often going the extra mile to make the daily running of their schools a little easier for principals and teachers. When we visit, the children’s joy is tangible: they rush to greet us with hugs and high fives, proudly showing off what they’ve been learning, and delight us with songs…sometimes more than one!
If you would like to know more about us and see what we do, we invite you to contact us to arrange a visit to one of our e’Pap schools.
We cannot change the world but we can change one little soul’s world by doing what we are doing. Francesca
On behalf of the e’Pap project team in George, the creche teachers, caregivers and most importantly the children we serve, thank you for your generous support over the years. Your contribution plays a vital role in helping us deliver e’Pap to underprivileged creches in communities where food insecurity is a daily reality.
Over the years we have lost a few creches due to the need for more e’Pap per school, but thanks to donors we can still feed between 600 to 700 children 3 to 5 times per week in the George area.
Your generosity sends a powerful message to these children and their communities: They are seen, they are valued and they matter. That sense of care and dignity reaches far beyond the meal itself. Every time I see these little faces with so much gratitude and joy when we deliver the e’Pap, it makes everything that I am doing worthwhile.
As a volunteer, I am grateful, because none of this would be possible without your support. With the rising food costs communities are being challenged to merely survive. Parents struggle to provide a basic need. Thank you for making a real and lasting difference in the lives of these young ones.
As the saying goes: We cannot change the world but we can change one little soul’s world by doing what we are doing.
I am excited to be part of the leadership team at e’Pap Children’s Feeding. The e’Pap story is inspiring – from its humble beginnings over twenty years ago with 60 students to today’s scale of 5000+ students it has been a story of passion and strong values driving results. More than that though, it is the shared vision amongst the leadership team, the committed volunteers, the school principals and even the cooks at those schools – to ensure that the children under their care get a good head start in life though proper nutrition, thus facilitating better learning. The challenges that e’Pap faces are considerable, being entirely reliant on private funding and given the rapid growth in headcount, but I am confident that we will continue to play a positive role in the future of our region
Get the taxman to work for you – for a change!
Guys, it is the magic month of February – the month where donations to e’Pap Feeding result in immediate tax relief.
Please think of us and the thousands of children we feed daily. Send us whatever you can, and we’ll send you off an 18A tax deduction claim by return.
That way you win, we win, but most importantly our pre-school children will be the biggest winners.
