FoodForward SA expands nutrition drive to 100 more families

FoodForward SA has expanded its mother and child nutrition programme to assist 100 additional beneficiaries in the communities of Bloekombos and Wallacedene in Cape Town.

Partnering with local health clinics, the launch of the expansion on Thursday, 20 August, saw local mothers from Wallacedene gathering to collect parcels of nutritious food, aimed at bridging the access gap for at-risk pregnant women and children under five.

Sister Carlin November, facility manager at the Wallacedene Clinic, highlighted the difficulty of assisting mothers and children vulnerable to malnutrition in the 35,000-strong population the clinic serves. While the facility provides support through health education and its Nutrition Therapeutic Programme, available for underweight babies up to six months, staff know they are often sending caregivers home to households where it is a struggle to put food on the table.

“When you look at food, food is also medicine. So, it starts off there... I am very excited and happy to have FoodForward SA onboarding all the members that were here today, and making a difference in the lives of these children,” she said.

Identifying areas of need

FoodForward SA has worked closely with the City of Cape Town health department to identify areas in the metro with the highest incidences of child malnutrition, according to Andy Du Plessis, managing director of FoodForward SA. The organisation is also partnering with a local beneficiary organisation, HewLin Compassion NPO, on food parcel distribution.

“We identified Bloekombos and Wallecedene because they are so overpopulated. People get sick; the infections increase... We’re working closely with the City health department, but also the local clinics, to make sure we identify the children early enough and get the nutrition they need,” said Du Plessis.

In his February 2026 State of the Nation Address, President Cyril Ramaphosa committed to ending child stunting and tackling malnutrition by 2030.

Du Plessis noted that FoodForward SA was taking a four-year view on how to reduce the number of children who were stunted across the country, with plans to continue its mother and child nutrition programme’s expansion in the Eastern Cape, as well as Gauteng, Kwa-Zulu Natal and other provinces.

The programme delivers monthly food parcels designed to feed a family of four for a month. FoodForward SA procures the foodstuffs specifically to ensure a healthy combination of protein, starch and fresh produce.

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‘Everything is expensive’

One of the beneficiaries who collected a food parcel on Thursday was a mother of three, with children aged six, two and three months old. Her youngest child was flagged as needing additional nutrition support at Wallacedene Clinic.

Both the beneficiary and her husband have been struggling with unemployment, contributing to food insecurity in the household.

“It’s because there are no jobs... Because you see, when you have kids, you must have a job to buy food, and we don’t have enough food to make our lives healthy,” she told Daily Maverick.

While the beneficiary received the Child Support Grant for her older two children, she noted that she struggled to stretch the money to buy all the items they needed.

“Everything is expensive. I have to buy food for the kids. I also have to buy clothes and food for us inhouse,” she said.

“[The FoodForward SA programme] will make a big difference because when I buy something now, I will buy on top of something... Now, we will have something to eat. Even now, when I get home, I will cook the food because we have the food.”

Combatting malnutrition

The Wallacedene Clinic usually sees more than 6,000 patients a month. When mothers come in with young children suffering from diarrhoea or infections such as pneumonia and TB, the underlying issue is often malnutrition, according to November.

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She observed that children identified as “disruptive” by mothers and teachers in the community were often those who were not developmentally on track due to poor nutrition. Those problems could continue to affect the entire life course of the child, placing them at increased risk of school dropout and other social challenges.

As the clinic manager, November said she would be placing increased emphasis on educating mothers about the warning signs of malnutrition.

“I will go back and sensitise my team about this because I’m very excited. I will run with this and make sure that we reach those lives, and if we can recruit more, we will recruit more to start on this project,” she said. DM