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 ten school feeding projects, and four crèches. In total we feed just over six 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 22 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)
- Lesley Young (Treasurer)
- Debbie Higgs (Secretary General)
- Andrew Heyns
- Sylvia Muthuli
- Angela Lindsay
- Moira Fenwick
- Malcolm Russell
We have one (part-time) staff member, Edwin Mokwena. He does all the pick-ups and deliveries for AFFT and is invaluable.
Apart from the management team, we currently have 24 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.
