Over 10-million South African adults and almost 3-million children experience hunger each week in South Africa. Some 2.5 million adults and 600 000 children experience hunger almost every day¹.

These are the hard realities of challenging economic times, exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, that has made it a daily struggle for many in South Africa to put food on the table and buy the most essential goods.

Shoprite has stepped up to help South Africans in need with their R5 campaign, to show the power of a R5 coin to bring dignity and comfort.

The first products launched in 2016 with subsidised bread, and has been expanded to include deli meals and sanitary pads, all of which can be bought for R5.

This has never been more necessary than now, with South Africa’s unemployment rate having risen to 34.3% as the economy has contracted during the almost two years of the pandemic.

That is why the price of a 600g loaf of brown bread at Shoprite has remained just R5 since April 2016. In the last three years alone, the retailer has sold more than 200 million subsidised loaves.

Shoprite launched its R5 deli meals in the middle of 2017, to provide nutritious, affordable, hot food. In the last financial year, the supermarket chain sold 228,496 meals. Buying a R5 packet of Shoprite Ritebrand soup has seen over 900,000 meals provided via the Lunchbox Fund since 2019.

Millions of packs of R5 sanitary pads, proudly made in South Africa, have been bought since November 2020, allowing women and girls the basic human right of living with dignity.

Shoprite’s Money Market Account offers access to basic transactional banking activities with no forms, debit orders, deductions or transactional fees. Customers only pay a R5 withdrawal fee, leaving them in total control of their money.

And in the spirit of community, Shoprite customers themselves can choose to donate R5 to the #ActForChange Fund, all of which goes directly to the selected beneficiary organisation (s) with no administration fees.

After almost two years of a pandemic that has changed so much and offered so many financial challenges to South Africa’s communities, Shoprite is focussed on ensuring that those who need help get it. The power of R5 and the basket of goods it provides is just one proof point of that.

Reference:

(1) "Food crisis: 2.5 million South Africans experience hunger ‘every day’", Daily Maverick, 26 May 2021 (retrieved 23 February 2022).