Welcome to 2008!

Sjoe! 2008 already, and we faltered badly - I think we stopped having meetings in about July. We started the new year fresh and fit (and fat) and have scheduled a meeting for the end of the month! IN the mean time - an organisation I think is interesting and worthy of that news years resoluntion to be more generous!

Feedback:

Feedback Food Redistribution is a registered Non Profit Organisation , committed to community development in South Africa through food redistribution. Feedback is also a registered Public Benefit Organisation with donor deductability status.

Initiated in 2000 as a result of one women's efforts to redistribute excess food from Cape Town's film industry to those in need; Feedback has grown from delivering food which could provide approximately 200 meals, to an organisation which in the last year (F2007)has provided enough food for well over 14 million meals to 215 beneficiary organisations in the Western Cape, Gauteng and Kwa Zulu Natal.

Feedback meets beneficiaries' urgent food needs while encouraging them to become self-sufficient in food provision. This is done through a process which includes workshops and the introduction of independent food sources such as vegetable gardens.

4,359,595 kgs of excess food was redistributed in the last financial year - FY2007. (Kilograms estimated at the point of collection).

4995 kgs (or 19,980) sandwiches were redistributed in the last academic year from affluent schools to those in need as part of our Bread Buddies programme.

205 organizations for community based social services that we support with food as at February 2007.

4 operations (Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban and Pietermaritzburg) within 3 regions.

Every beneficiary assessed every 6 months

Food distribution based on assessed need

355 people have participated in Feedback's Nutrition Development Workshops since inception, as part of our Food Security and Nutrition Development programme.

12 vegetable gardens that Feedback facilitated the implementation of.

December: Bernie and the Mielie Lady

Since the money received from the group in December was quite a large amount, I decided to split it and give before and after Christmas.

I gave the first amount of R1350 to Anna – an elderly mielie-lady. [For overseas readers … a mielie-lady is an entrepreneur who sells maize (corn) to suburban households by walking long hours through the streets with her wares calling miiiieeeelieees. Due to the fortress-like nature of most dwellings in Jozi, the most successful mielie-ladies are predictably those with the shrillest/loudest/most distinctive tones]. The idea to give to a mielie lady came to me very clearly on several occasions – usually early in the morning through the bedroom window and sometimes even through the pillow covering my head. I saw Anna from a distance one day and knew immediately that she could use the money.

It was almost sunset and she was limping very slowly down the road, painfully bent over a shopping trolley containing her last few mielies. When I parked beside her she sized me up immediately. She was very tired, had been walking for the whole day and was selling her mielies for only R3 each. She was from Parkhurst (about 5km away), supported 3 people and just had to sell the last few mielies before dark. As I handed her the semi-transparent bag of cash, Anna became what one would ordinarily describe as edgy. Sensing that she was uncomfortable I began to explain where the money came from and that she could do with it what she wanted. But Anna had decided to make haste before the crazy woman changed her mind and before long was moving in an unnaturally rapid manner down the street behind her trolly and the last few remaining mielies.

The idea for the remaining amount emerged during an out-of-town conference. During an early coffee one morning, I spotted one of the participants zig-zagging her way towards the breakfast room. Led by her guide dog, she appeared to be taking the scenic route, weaving behind trees and around the back of buildings. She arrived at breakfast with a bit of a bang, head-butting a pole and wrapping herself around a chair. It was later revealed that she had scolded her dog earlier (on his off-time) for chasing a squirrel and he had launched into a giant sulk, refusing to guide her properly. Since the guide dog association exists almost completely off contributions I decided to support their efforts and transferred the remaining R1400 to them via online donation.
For more info http://www.guidedog.org.za