Shelley Godsell and Lally Viljoen first started working together in 1997 facilitating a five year training course for about 30 pre-school teachers in Knysna. During the fifth and last year, Shelley’s husband Peter and Cathy Bath, who were both working at Hospice, became aware of a highly nutritious food called e’Pap. We thought that if it could feed HIV+ patients it could be a good thing for many of our undernourished children.

Two pre-schools, one in Concordia (a big township) and one in Rheenendal (a rural village outside of Knysna) were chosen for a six-month pilot study. Joan Huskisson, a retired head of Dietetics from UCT, and Beth Wilkinson, a local dietician, provided guidance on monitoring height and weigh. The results were encouraging. It was soon apparent that the health of the children had markedly improved it

This was at the end of 2002. Traditionally the Christmas collection at Methodist churches is given to a children’s charity, so we approached the leaders of the Knysna Methodist Church who readily agreed to support our Feeding Project in the year ahead. The journey had started. This was at the end of 2002.