Provide nutrition for 500 families in South Africa

Dear, dear friends

It’s been more than a year since the world changed completely!

We are so conscious of the fact that you have had tremendous challenges to face during this time, yet you have continued supporting us. This is deeply close to our hearts and appreciated beyond measure.

Every day we realise just how deeply we have been affected, and in so many different ways.

The line outside our gates every morning is testimony to the hardships people are still enduring, and has put pressure on us to treat food sustainability as a matter of urgency.

Our vegetable gardens have produced wonderful crops, but the drought in our city has now reached a critical level. In fact, it is so severe now, that predictions are that one of our main supply dams will be completely empty by July this year.

You can imagine the consequences that will have all around – on households, businesses, the economy…

We have had periods where our rainwater tanks ran completely dry, leading to crop failures in the garden.

Fortunately, for the past 8 years, we have been working on expanding our rainwater harvesting systems. Year by hear we added more and more tanks and captured water from every surface we could! I am thrilled to report that this year, we have DOUBLED our storage capacity as we have just added a 300 cubic meter reservoir! It has been an incredible project as it will keep our gardens going even in the dry months.

At the moment 12 families are sustaining themselves from the vegetables grown here, and the rest is sent to our Nutrition Unit to help offset costs there. With between 400 and 1000 people coming through our gates daily, you can imagine the relief this brings!

Through your support, it has been possible to get food to those who need it most, in a time when it has been more needed than ever before.

We deeply value your trust in us, and hope that one day we may show you our Centre and all you have made possible in person!

With heartfelt gratitude from all the people in Missionvale.

Links:

• The construction of the water reservoir!

Dear, dear friends

It is with cautious optimism that I am writing to wish you a “Happy New Year”! Indeed most of us feel some trepidation as we commence 2021, not quite knowing what to expect in the coming months.

This has led me to think about the opposite. What are we able to guarantee?

Here is what I can tell you:

• Every cent you have contributed through GlobalGiving has provided food parcels that are distributed to those who need it most urgently.
• Every morning, before our staff begin their working day, there is a time for thanksgiving. During this time, we think of you and the incredible things you make possible.
• Before the food is distributed, the community come together in this same spirit of gratitude; pausing for a moment to remember that behind every dollar, is a person sacrificing it. I have mentioned their singing before, and even though they are now spaced 1.5 meters apart, the joyful unification of their beautiful voices bring us all together.

How I wish you could all be here to be a part of it and to see the impact of your wonderful donations first hand. This is an open invitation to visit us, as soon as circumstances allow again!

In the meantime, I am sharing some photographs of food parcels distributed in December. I am proud to say the spinach was grown in our own communal vegetable garden, and the rest is all from YOU! We cannot thank you enough.

May your goodness to us come back to you in many wonderful and unexpected ways.

Links:

• Our Facebook Page