In preparation for Christmas in 2023, the Children’s Feeding Trust, in collaboration with a few senior citizens and local schools put efforts and resources together to help feed and clothe under-privileged children in Despatch.
Sophie Child Care and Youth Development Non-Profit Centre in Despatch identified five young girls who were in dire need of help. The centre was not only given assistance with the young girls, but was further awarded with more food, toys, clothes, and a Christmas party hosted for its many beneficiaries.
This year the Trust visited one of its donors, Collegiate Junior School for Girls, to thank them for their generous donation that was able to feed and clothe many.
“It is with great appreciation that we at Children’s Feeding Trust acknowledge the outreach, concerned care, generosity, and tremendous support shown during 2023 by you all. There was just no end to your monetary donations, oodles of noodles and soups.
Parental generosity for the year totaled the incredible amount of R46 704.54. During mid-winter along came the pelting rain and howling wind, when the days were so bitterly cold. We appealed to you for unclaimed lost property, but instead were given 78 bags of clothing, warm winter woollies, oh so cuddly, soft and snugly warm, and an endless range of clothes, which so warmed the frail kids and gave them reason to smile,” said trustee, Maureen Krige, in a short speech at the school.
As a token of their appreciation, the Children’s Feeding Trust team gave the school an evergreen shrub of Collegiate-blue and white, bearing fragrant flowers.
Krige said that their team would like the school to plant it in the school garden.
“May it thrive, and flourish, and emanate its sweet scent. Likewise, may it be a reminder of the care, love and outreach you gave last year to so many needy, hungry children in Despatch.”
Before the Trust representatives left the school, four grade seven pupils, Awonke Magagamela, Morgan Gous, Ava Larter, and Lara Fowlds, thanked the senior citizens and handed them more noodles to give to the needy, from their peers and the school.
The Children’s Feeding Trust (CFT) was launched in 1995 and operates under a registered deed of trust managed by a volunteer board of trustees, and a paid staff of two.
The Trust has a capital base inherited from the Port Elizabeth School Feeding Fund on its closure after 38 years in 1995, and subsequently built up by the Trust from bequests and fundraising over the past 29 years. Dedicated volunteers also run a bookshop where donated books are on sale to the public. Other fundraising activities include book sales, sale of jumble, donated household items, marmalade, waste paper, etc. – in order to cover the administrative costs of the Trust so that donations go directly to the feeding of children.
