Usave made a much-needed donation to the Ubuntu Soup Kitchen in Aberdeen to support their work in serving the communities of Aberdeen, Lotusville and Thembalisizwe. The donation included essential equipment including a fridge, freezer, gas stove and cooking utensils. Usave also donated essential food items, blankets for the elderly, hand sanitizer as well as gardening aprons & hats. Usave recently also donated seedlings and gardening equipment to support Ubuntu in establishing a food garden, which will provide the kitchen with fresh vegetables for their feeding scheme.

The Shoprite Group is distributing thousands of hampers following the unrest, vandalism and arson in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, which has left many people destitute.

The Shoprite Group has made an initial donation of R1 million to its Act for Change Fund to help those communities in KZN and Gauteng affected by unrest. This Fund enables the Group’s customers to donate at till points in any Shoprite, Checkers or Usave nationally.

Those wanting to help family and friends in need following unrest in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal can buy virtual vouchers and send them directly to their phones.

People wishing to help communities affected by unrest can donate to the Shoprite Act For Change Fund in any Shoprite, Checkers or Usave nationally. The funds, which will be boosted by the Shoprite Group’s own R1 million initial donation, will be used by vetted organisations involved in relief efforts to help communities rebuild after the devastating effects of the unrest, vandalism and arson on many community members and their businesses.

Learners at the Thubelihle Special Opportunity School in Ladysmith, KwaZulu-Natal are being taught gardening as a practical life skill, and their food garden has received a welcome boost following support from Shoprite.

Learners at three schools near Tsolo, in the Eastern Cape, are gaining hands-on experience about how to start and manage a food garden, with support from Shoprite. Victory Christian School, Mount Frere Community School and Uloyiso Christian School all started their sustainable food garden projects in 2020.

In the face of South Africa’s youth unemployment rate of 46.3%, youth in KwaZulu-Natal have risen to the challenge of creating jobs for themselves, and subsequently partnered with Shoprite’s sustainable community food garden programme.

Shoprite’s Mobile Soup Kitchen served more than 200 people at Chevs Kitchen, which was founded by 21-year old student Chevano Frans during last year’s hard lockdown, in Athlone.

It’s harvest time at the Lentegeur Psychiatric Hospital’s food garden in Mitchells Plain and just under 50kg of organic produce from this garden is being used by the Shoprite Mobile Soup Kitchen to feed community members in Wesbank and Khayelitsha.