In announcing the new initiative, Whitey Basson, the chief executive of the group, said the retailer took cognisance of the further pressure placed on the less privileged sectors of society by the current economic climate and resolved that it necessitates a relook at budget allocation to social spending for 2009.
Basson said that Shoprite Group will be channelling this year's resources for the Woman of the Year Award towards the feeding programme: “The group has, in conjunction with our broadcast partner SABC2, decided not to host the Award in 2009. We are grateful that the woman of South Africa will in this way contribute to a very worthy cause that may make a significant difference in combating hunger in our country.
“We are currently investigating new formats for future Woman of the Year Award presentations and we would like to continue with this admirable Award that recognises the exceptional achievements of our unsung heroines,” he added.
Bessie Tugwana, GM of SABC2, expressed her support for the initiative. “SABC2 has been Shoprite Checkers' co-sponsor for the rewarding Woman of the Year Award for the past six years, and this year agreed to take time out from the Award presentation so that more resources can be allocated to the feeding program to make it a success.”
Support for this decision was echoed by former judges of the Woman of the Year Award.
The announcement of the feeding program underscores Finance Minister Trevor Manual's most recent budget speech in which he said that government support for school feeding schemes would increase by R4 billion over the next three years.
The group estimates that it will be distributing at least 3.88 million cups of soup over the next 12 months to alleviate the plight of especially children and senior citizens, as well as the thousands of people affected by job losses.
Said Basson: “We have been piloting two mobile soup kitchens since February 2007 which to date served a total of 1,48 million meals of soup and bread in the Gauteng and Northwest Provinces during disaster and humanitarian relief efforts."
The project will be expanded with two mobile kitchens each for the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, and one each in the Free State/Northern Cape, Eastern Cape, Limpopo and Mpumalanga, bringing the total to 10. Each mobile kitchen is manned by three Shoprite staff members who are supported logistically by the Shoprite supermarket in the area in which it operates. A public relations team of nine people will coordinate the relief effort countrywide.
“As the largest retailer on the continent, serving 54.4% of South Africans in its supermarkets in this country, Shoprite regard it as its duty to assist wherever possible in bringing at least a nutritious meal per day to these people. It is the least we can do.
“We thank Toyota, Volkswagen and Mercedes as well as Royco for their support for Shoprite's feeding initiative,” Basson concluded.
