FoodForward SA supports a network of hundreds of registered beneficiary organisations countrywide.
Our January edition of the FoodForward SA newsletter features Little Peoples Den, an Early Childhood Development (ECD) centre for children from low-income families. The ECD is situated in Milnerton, Cape Town under the stewardship of Avryn Alter, the school’s founder and principal. The school was founded in 1984 in Paarl where the community was serviced and later relocated to Milnerton in 2007 where the focus shifted to servicing children who come from low-income families residing in the nearby communities of Joe Slovo informal settlement, Phoenix and Rugby.
The school comprises of 32 children and 2 staff, a cook/cleaner and an assistant teacher, together with Avryn. The school follows the curriculum set out by the Western Cape Education Department and their extracurricular activities include dancing, crafts, movement to music, and gymnastics,
The staff get incredible satisfaction from helping these children with their development, many of whom cannot afford school fees. The lack of regular school fees severely constraints the day-to-day operations of the school, and FoodForward SA’s regular food contribution is seen as a God-send as it relieves the financial burden of the school’s grocery bill. The food provided by FoodForward SA allows ECDs like this one to take in toddlers that would otherwise be playing in the street, often unsupervised because parents can’t afford the fees.
Not only is the grocery hamper saving them thousands of rands each month, but it is of a generous size, and contains a wide variety of healthy and nutritional food products that will make healthy meals, and enable these underprivileged children to learn and develop optimally.
With the money saved from the grocery bill, the school is able to facilitate smoother daily operations and also provide once-a-month activities for the children at educational places of interest.
Avryn’s message to FoodForward SA: “A massive THANK YOU to FoodForward SA for including Little Peoples Den in this amazing foodbanking model. We are highly appreciative of this incredible monthly food contribution. My staff and I are comforted by the fact that our children’s’ tummies are full so that they are able to concentrate, learn and develop to their full potential.”
Avryn Alter (Founder & Principal) – Little Peoples Den