story main

500 food parcels deliverd = 42,000 meals!

DAKTARI keeps supporting the communities by distributing food parcels in the nearby villages. So far, we have distributed 500 parcels, or 42,000 meals to 9 different villages. Let us take you through the whole process so you can have an idea of how we do it!

How did we choose the families? We work with the home-based care ladies from the villages to help us identify the families that most need the parcels. These ladies provide care to the people in need in the villages, people who are not able to prepare food for themselves or need medical assistance. They were also making sure that we give to people that do not receive other financial aid or food from the government or other organizations. They provide us with a list of names, contact details and ID number beforehand, allowing us to double check if we haven't yet delivered to them. Where do the food parcels come from? Thanks to generous donations from people all around the world, we have been able to collect sufficient funds for 500 food parcels. Every Tuesday, we received 100 food parcels from Bidfood, a supplier who contacted us to be part of this initiative by offering to pack the food items into boxes and deliver to us at no extra cost. What is inside a food parcel? The food parcels included maize meal, cooking oil, beans, tinned fish, toilet paper and soap. We have also included seeds (spinach, cabbage, beetroots and carrots) to the parcels, so they can start planting and grow their own vegetable garden to become more sustainable, as we expect the crisis to last for a while. One week we also had fresh fruits and vegetables thanks to a donation from Kruger2Canyon biosphere. How did we deliver the food parcels? At the start of the distribution we were under lockdown level 4, gathering of people were not allowed so we had to go house to house. This was very challenging and time-consuming but we did not have any other option to deliver the parcels. It is only halfway through the deliveries that we were able to organise gatherings of 50 people. The distribution can only start after we have introduced ourselves to the chief of the village. We work closely with them and they are proud that we are coming to their village. One of the chief even sent us a letter thanking us for coming to his village for the distribution. Then the home-based care lady join us in the car to indicate where we meet the people. The process is always the same and we follow a very strict procedure: they have to stand 1m away from each other in a line, and wear a mask. No mask=no food! Then, we sanitize their hands, check their IDs and hand in the food parcels. 500 parcels / 42,000 meals provided! We are very pleased with how the distribution went, and we leave with our hearts full of joy to know that we can provide some relief to people in need. In the very near future, we will launch another fundraising campaign to be able to deliver even more food parcels, as the crisis continues to hit the country.

Other stories