About Africa Food for Thought
Africa Food for Thought is a non-profit organization, run by volunteers, which is essentially focused on equipping and supplying school feeding programmes. We are also involved in a number of community projects, self-help/empowerment projects and shelters and half-way houses. Our aim is to help those who need it the most: the vulnerable and marginalized. Our vision is "to feed people in the name of Christ, in order to bring hope to the hopeless".
We currently have eleven school feeding projects, and nine crèches. In total we feed over ten thousand eight hundred children. Whilst we equip and supply the projects, it is the parents and community volunteers who run the project, do the cooking and serving. In this way, we encourage schools and communities to own the project.
During our work with the schools, it came to our attention that whilst all the children come from disadvantaged and impoverished backgrounds, some of the children were particularly vulnerable: often orphaned by the AIDs epidemic and living in child-headed households. These children are often not receiving any grant or aid from the government, sometimes through ignorance, sometimes through fear of being institutionalized, and sometimes through lack of documentation (birth certificates etc.)
We are currently supporting 50 such households with weekly food parcels. These parcels generally contain the basic staples required for nutritional survival, although we do try to include items for personal hygiene, clothing, bedding etc.
Our management team comprises 8.
- Peter France (Chairperson)
- Andrea Andersson (Treasurer)
- Debbie Higgs (Secretary General)
- Andrew Heyns
- Hubert Matrose
- Neil Higgs
- Reon Louw (Chair Elect)
- Malcolm Russell
We have one full-time staff member, Edwin Mokwena (Driver's Assistant) and one part-time Personal Assistant, Megyn van Gijssel. They are both invaluable to AFFT.
Apart from the management team, we currently have 34 members. Membership is free and has no obligations attached to it. Being a member of AFFT entitles you to vote on Constitutional matters at the AGM, receive invitations to all AGMs and OGMs and to nominate and vote for office bearers. Membership is at the discretion of the management.
