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The long-term development and lives of South African children are at stake due to the “slow violence of malnutrition”.
Hunger in the first 1 000 days of an infant’s life can irreversibly affect their development – and even be fatal – according to the Children’s Institute at the University of Cape Town, who coined the phrase.
It says a lack of food can stunt children’s brain and physical growth, compromising their education and employment prospects down the line.
Data collected by the institute over more than two decades shows that one in four youngsters present with what is termed “stunting”.
Even more concerning is the fact that around a thousand children died in this country due to acute malnutrition in 2025 alone.
A worrying proportion of them – 70 deaths – was recorded in the Eastern Cape.
SPAR Eastern Cape sponsorship controller Honey Koba said on Mandela Day that addressing hunger could not be a tick-box exercise.
“We want to make sure that food supply is sustainable,” she said while she and her colleagues helped packed foodstuffs for non-profit Food Forward in Gqeberha.
The provincial chapter of the organisation recovers excess food from farmers, manufacturers and retailers for redistribution to beneficiary organisations (BOs) in areas such as Qonce, East London, Fort Beaufort and Komani.
“We enjoy working with them because, like us, they are committed to making a tangible impact,” Koba explained the retailer’s long-standing involvement.
It is however not only children who are suffering. The Human Science Research Council, the largest research body on the continent, estimates that 11-million kids and adults in SA go to bed hungry every night.
This is why Food Forward has now also partnered with clinics in KwaZakhele, Boosen Park and Rosedale in Nelson Mandela Bay as part of its mother-and-child nutrition programme.
It will deliver 50 boxes of groceries to each facility every month.
Besides volunteering their time for the second year running, Koba said SPAR EC also donated maize meal, soya mince, pilchards, cooking oil, peanut butter, jam, baked beans, rice, instant porridge, cornflakes, eggs, vegetables and bananas.
Koba said hunger spoke to unemployment and crime and that it was important “to play our part”.
“We see how many children die at a young age because of malnutrition. We also know that their parents are often unemployed.”
Even if a youngster is fed, it defeats the purpose if the mother is not.
“She needs to be healthy, both physically and mentally, so that the child can be nurtured properly,” Koba said.
Food Forward’s warehouse manager in Gqeberha, Jameel Nordien, said the need in the province had surged on the back of the recent factory closures.
The non-profit distributes small, medium and large food baskets to nearly 150 BOs every month and the demand for the latter has grown exponentially since December.
Nordien said the silver lining was that more businesses were joining hands with the organisation and that it was in a much better space than before.