Nonprofit sounds alarm over rising child hunger fuelling ‘perpetual cycle of poverty’ in SA

Rise Against Hunger gives food to early childhood development centres (ECDs) and creates sustainable farming projects and disaster relief activities to eradicate hunger one meal at a time. The organisation has packed more than 57 million meals globally.

In South Africa about 10 million adults and nearly three million children experience hunger, a 2021 study found, and 600,000 children were experiencing perpetual hunger, hunger every day or almost every day.

According to the Hunger Project, founded in 1918, hunger has affected humanity since the beginning of time. It is a chronic state of malnutrition that results from a lack of access to sufficient food. 

Rise Against Hunger chief executive Brian Nell said that in their engagement with communities they often hear about parents not being able to pay the average ECD fee of R300 in some months. “In some cases the parents are then forced to leave their children at home. Apart from them not receiving a daily nutritious meal for that period, there are also major concerns around their safety (home alone) and losing out on valuable foundation-phase educational activities. It’s a huge setback.”

This was concerning because the developmental years are critical. Between the age of one and six “good nutrition and education are vital if they are to have a chance of completing high school, entering a tertiary education facility and then being able to find suitable income to support themselves. Given that one in four (25%) children born in SA are born developmentally stunted, the first 1,000 days of their life also needs urgent intervention.”

With the elections around the corner, Daily Maverick asked Nell what he thinks the state can do better to partner with organisations such as Rise Against Hunger. He highlighted the plight of children outside the formalised ECD centres who often fall through the cracks. 

“One of Rise Against Hunger Africa’s core focus areas is the support of unregistered ECDs. By providing (donating) nutritious meals to these facilities, it creates a savings for the ECD. By reinvesting the savings into the ECD, it helps create a better learning and educational environment. Ultimately, we are trying to assist these ECDs to be able to register and start receiving a grant. However, the process is challenging. The Department of Basic Education should be engaging with organisations like ours to support this initiative. Currently the government does not recognise unregistered ECDs, however they are a reality and care for thousands and thousands of children during their foundation years,” he said.

The organisation runs campaigns and corporate meal-packing events throughout the year, but Nell says they look forward to commemorative days such as Mandela Day in July because they always raise awareness among many companies to support communities. “We host several multicorporate events across the country to give companies an opportunity to pack nutritious meals for 67 minutes. Our meals have a one-year shelf life, so this is not a one-off exercise and [we] will build supplies for several months. The more meals we pack, the more ECDs we will be able to support.”

Nell said that over the past five years they have seen an increased need for hunger alleviation in the communities they serve, and that they are inundated with requests daily. 

“We have always been aware that many children we provide meals for while attending their ECD during the week, don’t have any food over the weekend. The request from principals to provide additional meals for ‘take home’ has been increasing steadily.”

Violence against children