Brief history of the Peninsula School Feeding Association (PSFA)
On 10 March 1958, the then National Party government ended the national school feeding programme due to ‘wastage’, based on ineffective administrative control and accountability. Soon after, it became clear that the need for school feeding was great, as many of the school children came from families who lived below the breadline, and the urgency was enough to justify independent action, regardless of the government’s response to the outcry.
As a result of frequent requests from concerned school principals for assistance, because their children were either fainting or not coming to school due to hunger, about 60 concerned members of the Rotary Club of Paarden Eiland (now Table Bay) got together and decided to pick up where the government had left off. Three days later, the PSFA was formed.
Brief overview of PSFA
PSFA is a registered non-profit organisation that addresses hunger in young learners attending primary, secondary and special needs schools as well as Orphaned & Vulnerable Children Centres (OVCs) and Early Childhood Development Centres (ECDs) and Further Education and Training Centres (FET’s) in the Western Province.
Our Mission is to combat the prevalence of hunger in children attending schools and other developmental institutions, through school feeding and other developmental initiatives, while they are at school.
Our Vision is no more hungry school children.
PSFA’s main aims are to reduce short term hunger, enhance children’s ability to learn through school feeding and increase school attendance.
PSFA has to date provided over 1. 5 billion nutritious meals to underprivileged school children thus promoting a sound grounding for education, which is the key to everyone’s future.
Hunger and malnutrition prevent the disadvantaged children on our feeding programme from learning. This leads onto a lifetime of damage and continuation of the cycle of poverty – for the child, our society and our nation.
PSFA currently provides daily nutritious cooked meals to a total of 28 237 learners at the following educational institutions in the Western Cape:
- 26 465 learners at 136 primary, secondary and special needs schools
- 382 children at 14 ECDs
- 390 children at four OVC safe parks and
- 1 000 students at two FET colleges
Over and above the ingredients supplied to each educational institution on our feeding programme, PSFA also provides gas stoves, gas bottles, gas when needed, pots, plates, eating spoons and cooking utensils.
PSFA empowers and trains members of the community, usually unemployed parents, to prepare and serve meals at each of the schools. PSFA provides each volunteer with a monthly stipend.
All food stocks are stored at PSFA’s warehouse. PSFA contracts external transportation companies to ensure timeous delivery of the ingredients to each school on our programme.
PSFA employs Field Workers to manage, monitor and evaluate the proper implementation of our feeding at all the schools on our programme. Our Field Workers conduct regular site visits at their respective schools.
PSFA has to date also built 123 kitchens at schools that had inadequate facilities to prepare cooked meals. Thanks to funding provided by one of our donor’s, we are at present building our 124th kitchen at HJ Kroneberg Primary in Kensington.
The Need for School Feeding
According to a report compiled by the University of Cape Town’s Children’s Institute, three out of every four children in South Africa are living in poverty, with approximately 30% of the country’s population experiencing food insecurity.
PSFA’s school feeding programme is specifically structured to address hunger. It impacts positively on the learner’s nutritional status. Each meal provided meets at least 33% of the learner’s Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA).
PSFA Schools Feeding Menu
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday |
| Breakfast | Breakfast | Breakfast | Breakfast | Breakfast |
| Maize meal | Maize Meal | Maize Meal | Maize Meal | Maize Meal |
| Lunch | Lunch | Lunch | Lunch | Lunch |
| Rice | Samp | Rice | Rice | Samp |
| Pilchards in Tomato | Sugar Beans | Curry Soya Mince | Pilchards in Tomato | Savoury Soya Mince |
| Brown Lentils | Oil | Fresh Carrots | Fresh Cabbage | Fresh Carrots |
| Fresh Butternut | Salt | Salt | Salt | Salt |
| Salt | Fruit in Season | Fruit in Season | Oil | |
| Breyani Mix |
Cost Implications
PSFA’s school feeding programme is specifically structured to address hunger. It impacts positively on the learner’s nutritional status. Each meal provided meets at least 33% of the learner’s Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA). It costs R2 per learner per day for the meal – R395 per learner per annum.
Conclusion
PSFA receives funding from many generous donors who have adopted a school and in doing so, contribute to the nutritional needs of learners. These donors include individuals, companies, trusts, foundations, privileged schools, NPO’s, churches and clubs.
All the schools on our feeding programme are not included in the Western Cape Education Department’s National Schools Nutrition Programme. PSFA undertakes to secure funding to ensure that these schools will be supported by our feeding programme.
PSFA believes that children should be given the opportunity to learn, grow, develop and achieve. Children cannot do all this without a nutritional meal. The provision of school feeding contributes significantly to these objectives. As we say and believe, “you can’t teach a hungry child”.
