The Grand Arena at GrandWest Casino in Goodwood was a hive of activity on Friday as more than 700 volunteers spent their 67 minutes for Mandela Day at the annual Rise Against Hunger meal-packing event.
The event was split into three 67-minute sessions to pack 140 000 meals for preschools across the country, feeding 565 children for a year.
Volunteers from businesses and high schools too part. Each business funds its own meal packs.
“As Rise Against Hunger, during the Mandela Day event, we will be packing approximately 140 000 meals, but throughout the month of July, the Western Cape branch will be packing roughly 500 000 meals, and that’s just using volunteers across our various networks,” said Dayne Myles, Rise Against Hunger regional manager.
Rise Against Hunger is an international hunger-relief non-profit organisation. The meals packed at the event included lentils, split peas, rice and soya.
Thirty pupils from AZ Berman High School in Mitchell’s Plain were among the volunteers.
“We love showing our children that although we are in a poor community, we can still give back with the little bit that we do,” said deputy principal Tamsyn Baynes. “So we bring our kids every year just so that they can also be part of giving back to underprivileged communities, although they are also, but we do every little bit we can do to assist.”
GrandWest general manager Mervyn Naidoo said the event was a fitting way to honour Nelson Mandela’s legacy.