Pikitup's food for waste programme to break cycle of poverty

15 October 2015

 

As the World prepares to celebrate World Food Day on Friday October 16, Pikitup is also making a contribution to food security through its Food for Waste Programme to ensure that more vulnerable people benefit. Food insecurity is a major concern in many parts of the developing world, and Johannesburg is not immune to it.

 

Pikitup’s Food for Waste Programme was established in 2012-2013 in response to Executive Mayor Cllr Parks Tau’s call to arrest the glaring food insecurity scourge in the city to ensure that “no one goes to bed hungry”. More than 300 poor and vulnerable people in the City’s Region G – one of the poorest in Johannesburg – are currently benefiting from it.

 

The programme has over the past two years been implemented at 10 sites in the region – five in informal settlements around Lenasia and five in Orange Farm. The beneficiaries were identified through the Department of Health and Social Development’s Expanded Social Package register. They were divided into groups and allocated an illegal dumping spot to convert into a productive food garden, which they are also maintaining. Every week group members are rewarded with a food parcel worth about R80.

 

In addition, Pikitup provides them with protective clothing as well as working tools such as a water tanks, a weekly supply of water, seedlings, spades and rakes. All this support was provided for a year, after which the group is expected to form a cooperative so they could benefit from other opportunities – and give others a chance to go through the programme.

 

Speaking on the eve of the World Food Day, Pikitup’s Executive Director: Waste Minimisation Strategy and Programmes, Musa Jack, said the Food for Waste Programme has revolutionised the way waste had contributed to promoting job security and poverty alleviation.

 

“One of the main objectives of this programme is the contribution to poverty alleviation and to ensure that the poorest of the poor have food on the table while also ensuring cleanliness of their environment. The programme is aimed at assisting communities to care for their environment, while at the same time creating job opportunities, fighting hunger and poverty and promoting recycling, waste reduction and reuse,” she said.

 

Pikitup is currently in the process of reviewing the programme to ensure that it improves on it from the lessons learnt so far in an effort to expand it to more vulnerable communities.

 

According to Jack, the programme will now be aligned to the Mayor’s Jozi@Work vision to ensure that projects are implemented using cooperatives. These projects include the collection of recyclable waste, transport of waste to sorting and buy-back facilities, operation of these facilities, as well as education and awareness programmes. “The implication of this is that Pikitup will require new contract management, facilitation, and monitoring and evaluation skills. The fleet composition will change over time as the new approach is implemented and requirements change,” she said.