On Friday 24 August 2018, during an ‘Inspire Action with Instagram‘ event hosted by Facebook Africa in Johannesburg Bryanston, Sarah Collins announced the official launch of a partnership and initiative called Feeding The Future that began its rollout in early August.
The Wonderbag Founder has teamed up with two other influential and leading ladies in their own respective fields – Jackie Cameron and Carolyn ‘Coo’ Hancock as part of the Coalition of Action to implement this life-changing programme. Feeding The Future aims to bring about real change for impoverished communities living in vulnerable and underserviced communities and combines catalysts for a better livelihood with the relevant support.
According to Collins, Feeding The Future is a programme that uses food as a means of bringing communities together to not only eat a nutritional meal but to also engage with each other and address key social issues that will be facilitated and guided by experts, doctors, rape counsellors, afterschool teachers and other issues and challenges pre-identified by women from the affected communities. Collins, Cameron and Hancock already have in their own right undertaken the challenging task of tackling issues on food, early childhood education, budding leadership, economic empowerment and safety of women and girls within their own immediate communities. This initiative now looks to combine their expertise and years of experience so they can push their individual endeavours to new heights and in turn they also believe will create a ripple effect across not only South Africa, but the continent.
“At the start of August we commenced rolling out the Feeding The Future project in an extremely vulnerable community, Shiyasa, above the Howick Falls in KwaZulu Natal. Having already started tracking and rectifying certain aspects of the programme as it progressed earlier this month, it was clear that the positive impact being made in the lives of the community that reside there meant we had to formalise and officially launch Feeding The Future project to the public. We have three main objectives with this programme which are to feed all the children at Thembelihle Primary School and Angels Care Centre a daily hot meal cooked in catering sized Wonderbags (feeding almost 1000 children); to educate, support and empower women in Shiyasa where the children live through the subsidising of Wonderbags and providing them with recipes to use to create affordable and nutritious meals while introducing professionals in the medical and social workspace to engage with and educate the gathered community on key topics such as rape, AIDs, abuse, alcoholism, and more; and to design a new kitchen as part of the planned expansion of Thembelihle Primary School that caters for underprivileged children. All of which we are needing support from fellow businessmen and women and affluent individuals to assist us in covering the costs needed to sustain this programme and eventually grow it across the country. We believe by better equipping these communities to care for themselves and their children we can break the cycle of poverty in our country and place women in positions of economic freedom and liberated from the fear of everyday survival. I am incredibly proud to be working with Jackie and Carolyn who not only share my dream to change the future, but through this initiative, we are already making that change a reality,” stated Collins.
Collins, known internationally for her prowess as a social entrepreneur and Founder of the revolutionary Wonderbag, is passionate about empowering women and alleviating poverty and has made great strides in uplifting rural communities throughout Africa through the Wonderbag Foundation. Jackie Cameron is one of South Africa’s and Africa’s top chefs and after a star-studded career taking up residence in some of the top restaurants and hotels across the world she realised her dream to tutor aspiring chefs when her school of food and wine – based in Hilton, KwaZulu-Natal – opened in April 2015. Carolyn ‘Coo’ Hancock is one of SA’s leading experts in the science of genetics and more specifically how DNA can help address the unacceptably high levels of crime experienced by SA citizens, as well as spearheading the establishment and overseeing the running of Thembelihle Primary School for underprivileged children in Howick and acting as the Chairman of the Angels Care Centre that offers educational, and social services to children in the greater Howick area.
These three powerhouse women all originate from the KZN Midlands, and although their family homes are within walking distance of each other and their paths have crossed at various junctures over the past 20 years, it is only now that these women are coming together in earnest to realise the famous Zulu proverb that states, “walking alone you can walk fast, walking together you can walk further and stronger together.“ The first empowering event to support Feeding The Future with other influential individuals will take place on 8 September 2018 in Hilton at the Jackie Cameron School of Food and Wine.