Cape Town - The closure of South Africa's
schools seven weeks ago halted a national feeding programme
providing meals to 9 million extremely poor children, filling
their stomachs and helping them get through the classroom day to
get an education.
Now a potential hunger crisis looms.
The economic hardship has been severe since President Cyril
Ramaphosa ordered most citizens to stay indoors and shuttered
all but essential businesses in late March.
"We have kids here at school who faint (from hunger)," said
Shireen Valentyn, 41, a volunteer at Hoofweg primary school in
the impoverished Blue Downs community in Cape Town.
The school is closed for classes but is providing children
and their guardians meals as part of an emergency scheme, unique
to the Western Cape, officials said.
Children queue for food at a school feeding scheme in Blue Downs near Cape Town during the coronavirus lockdown. Picture: Mike Hutchings/Reuters
"In our kids there is a lot of hunger," Valentyn said. In
the morning they queue in the cold for porridge. Later separate
lines of children and adults wait with plastic lunch boxes for a
midday meal of cooked butternut and tinned fish breyani.
Children queue for food at a school feeding scheme in Blue Downs during a nationwide lockdown aimed at limiting the spread of the coronavirus disease. Picture: Mike Hutchings/Reuters
South Africa reopened some sectors of the economy on May 1
as the government sought to kickstart a stuttering economy.
A volunteer helps a child wash her hands at a school feeding scheme in Blue Downs during a nationwide lockdown aimed at limiting the spread of the coronavirus disease. Picture: Mike Hutchings/Reuters
Schools are expected to partially reopen later this month,
with students starting to return to class from June 1.
But there is no certainty over when the national school
nutrition programme will resume, piling pressure on poor
families struggling to make ends meet.
The education department did not respond immediately to a
request for comment on the school meal programme.
Volunteers and teachers serve food at a school feeding scheme in Gugulethu during a nationwide lockdown aimed at limiting the spread of Covid-19 in Cape Town. Picture: Mike Hutchings/Reuters
"I am also worried about the virus but there is nothing we
can do because we can't stay hungry," said mother-of-two Thabisa
Nete, 33, as she got a hot meal at Vuyani primary school in Gugulethu.
The University of Cape Town's Children's Institute said
before the pandemic, a quarter of South Africa's under-fives
were nutritionally stunted and 6.4 million children under 18
survived on less than R600 a month.
Volunteers and teachers serve food at a school feeding scheme in Gugulethu during a nationwide lockdown aimed at limiting the spread of Covid-19 in Cape Town. Picture: Mike Hutchings/Reuters
The government had distributed over 250,000 emergency food
parcels to poor families by the end of April, the social
development minister said, and provided an extra 50 billion rand
for social grants.
But child rights activists still warn of a "hunger crisis".
Learners observe social distancing markers as they queue at a school feeding scheme in Gugulethu during a nationwide lockdown aimed at limiting the spread of Covid-19. Picture: Mike Hutchings/Reuters
"There is certainly a hunger crisis ... and from the
perspective of children, I would say that this is a severe
implication for their ability to survive," said Nurina Ally,
executive director at Equal Education Law Centre (EELC).
The EELC is one of five groups lobbying Ramaphosa to
immediately restart the national feeding scheme or replace it
with viable alternatives like food vouchers, as some other
countries have done, or substantial increases to child support
grants.