Volunteers Rise Against Hunger at Time Square

For the second consecutive year, Time Square South Africa in Menlyn Maine called on its employees and volunteers from local businesses and government to Rise Against Hunger in commemoration of International Mandela Day (18 July 2018). The initiative, in collaboration with Rise Against Hunger (previously Stop Hunger Now), saw volunteers invest 67 minutes of their time on packaging lines at Time Square to pack meal parcels for needy children.

The speakers at the event were the Minister for Social Development, Ms Susan Shabangu, MP; the Chief Executive Officer of Sun International, Anthony Leeming; Chief Operations Officer of Sun International, Thabo Mosololi; the Acting Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Jan Huesken, and the Ambassador of Switzerland, Helene Budliger Artieda. The Ambassadors of the Embassies of the United States, France, Chile, Holland and United Emirates, as well as representatives from the Nelson Mandela Foundation, South African Breweries, City of Tshwane, Nissan SA, Vodacom, Volvo, Telkom and Menlyn Maine Investment Holdings were amongst the volunteers. SAPS Brigadier Nair was also amongst the special guests.

The goal was to pack 200 000 meals at the event. This target was exceed, with a grand total of 227 664 meals packed on the day. Each parcel contains 216 meal bags which in turn contain six meals each. The contents are carefully planned to provide for the nutritional needs of children, including rice, soya, soup mix and a vitamin sachet containing 23 essential vitamins and minerals.

The campaign was part of a nationwide drive, with similar food packing events taking place at three other Sun International properties – The Boardwalk in Port Elizabeth, GrandWest in Cape Town and Carnival City on the East Rand – as well as other venues across the country. The target was to pack 3-million meals in one day.

The Rise Against Hunger food packing challenge began in 2015 when some 1.2-million meals were packed on International Mandela Day. Since then, the Rise Against Hunger food packing drive on International Mandela Day has grown considerably to see over 3-million meals packed on one day in 2017.

“International Mandela Day this year marks the centenary of the late former president, Nelson Mandela’s birth. In the spirit of Mandela’s immense generosity and love for children, we were honoured to host the 2018 Rise Against Hunger food packing drive on what would have been his 100^th birthday. Alleviating hunger is something that is close to our heart and it was indeed heartening to see so many volunteers lineup to lend a hand to pack food for the needy in our community,” says Brett Brett Hoppé, General Manager at Time Square South Africa.