Feeding scheme at the University of Cape Town supplies 600 lunch packs daily to sustain the hungry students.
The scheme was started in April 2018 after UCT’s department of social development realised that a lot students carried on with insufficient or no food at all. It has been concerning how this has been growing.
UCT said in a statement that the lunches were made up, packed and distributed by volunteers. Lunch Packs are distributed on UCT’s upper campus, the College of Music, Hiddingh campus and the Child Guidance Clinic.
Matheko Moshoeshoe-Madi, from the department of social development’s strategic fuel fund, said: “We advocate for education, but we are going through issues of poverty. Yet students are willing to come to varsity to learn, not knowing where their next plate of food is coming from. We wanted to help.”
The National Research Foundation’s Stephen Devereux made headlines in 2018 when he reported that more than 30% of the country’s students were food insecure, compared with 26% of the population. These numbers pose a huge challenge as they show that students are going to lectures hungry.
The situation is aggravated by the inability of students to receive National Student Financial Aid Scheme.
