September 2020.

As the bitterly cold weather sweeps across the Western Cape, bringing widespread rains and snowfalls on the Ceres mountains, the communities of Bella Vista, Nduli including Vredebes, Prince Alfred Hamlet and Ceres are grateful for the promise of a warm meal each day.

With funding from the Perdekraal Wind Farm, local NGO’s are extending their programmes and increasing their efforts as the cold spreads in the area.

“We are collaborating with four NGOs in the area, who will be providing meals in the five allocated communities during September, with the promise of offering at least one meal to 500 community members, for five days, over a four-week period,” said Jo-Anne Brown, Economic Development Manager at Perdekraal East Wind Farm.

The project commences 7 September, while the weather is cold, ensuring that community members are able to receive one healthy, warm, prepared meal and came about in an effort to deliver further COVID-19 support in the area. Food parcels had previously been provided in collaboration with the Department of Social Development to the most vulnerable in these communities.

Warrick Alexander and his team at Witz Events Network, is responsible for implementing a programme, aptly named ‘Feeding our Communities with Hope’, which the Wind Farm’s funds are helping to sustain. He explained, “With the COVID-19 infections reaching predicted peak, many lost focus of the hungry tummies and frustrated households in our communities, with grandmothers having to make a plan as to where the next meal will come from.  So this funding is not only helping us feed our people with food, but also provides hope and dignity.”

Other NGOs that are providing the community support are Vrolike Vinkies; Witzenberg Justice Coalition in collaboration with Rural Development Support Programme.

“At the beginning of lockdown, we worked with the Department of Social Development, to fund food parcels to 150 households within our partner communities as well as to farms in the Karoo area, which provided meals for about a month, to over 400 people,” concluded Brown.