Ivan Swartz, CEO of Valcare; Simoné de Wet, MD of Val de Foundation, and Ryk Neethling, Val de Vie Estate Marketing Director and Shareholder, helping the volunteers pack food parcels.
Valcare is collaborating with multiple stakeholders in the Cape Winelands to provide food to vulnerable families due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Thousands of people in the region are unable to work, have lost their jobs or can’t get to feeding schemes during the lockdown, with the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) reporting that the need of relief has tripled during this time.
Following a Structured Response Plan
Through a coordinated Covid-19 Response Plan, Valcare is supporting permitted soup kitchens with ingredients, sponsoring essential grocery vouchers to vulnerable families, and distributing household food parcels to the most desperate people.
The resources are distributed in close partnership with 43 of Valcare’s nonprofit member organisations and 68 of Inceba Trust’s Early Childhood Development centres, who are already operational in communities of the Cape Winelands. The organisations had to register their network’s food needs and go through a criteria process to ensure that the recipients are priority.
The communities where the parcels will be distributed will stretch from Mbekweni, New Rest, Wellington, Lantana, Chicago, Klapmuts, Simondium and Gouda, depending on the availability of funds.
Funding and Food Parcel Goals
The goal is to raise R4 375 000 million to enable the distribution of 2500 household food parcels per month, for five months up until August 2020. The project will however be reviewed on an ongoing basis.
Three of Valcare’s core funders, The Aslan Trust, The Hanneli Rupert Getuienis Trust and The Val de Vie Foundation have generously committed to match the total funding received from the public.
Ryk Neethling, Val de Vie Estate Marketing Director and Shareholder commented: “The Val de Vie Foundation’s ethos has always been to leave a lasting, positive impact on the larger community. We realise that the need in our community during these unprecedented times is great, and the way our residents have opened their hearts and their wallets is inspiring.”
Valcare Covid-19 Fund in Numbers | Week 1
After the first week of operations on 18 April 2020, R1 168 994 funds were raised, with 528 food parcels and vouchers distributed to 2222 beneficiaries. In addition, Val de Vie Estate had 47 residents volunteer their time to pack, sort and sanitise the parcels, and multiple companies have sponsored goods in kind to support the response plan.
“We are encouraged by the generosity and sacrifices of many people so far, but we realise that we have a long way to go. We need everyone who is able to give or assist in any way, to contribute to the Covid-19 fund to ensure that as many people as possible don’t go hungry,” says Ivan Swartz, CEO of Valcare.
Miss World 2014, medical doctor and humanitarian, Rolene Strauss, has also added her plea for donations to the fund, by sharing on her social media channels, “So many families are affected by Covid-19 and it breaks my heart to think that families with children are going to bed hungry. We are all affected by this, your support (however big or small) will make a difference. I urge you to find and support those organisations around you who are assisting the vulnerable.”
Valcare’s Covid-19 Fund is coordinated in partnership with Inceba Trust, Jak1:27, The Val de Vie Foundation, The Aslan Trust and The Hanneli Rupert Getuienis Trust.
For more information on the process, food parcels and ways to donate, please go to www.valcare.org.za/coronavirus.
