Checkers’ donation of surplus food takes load off during lockdown

At Residentia Hermon, a frail care facility in North Pretoria, life in lockdown meant that their 86-person staff complement had to move in to take care of the elderly residents of the home.

“All of a sudden we had to provide daily meals for them as well as our residents,” says Lorette Smith, manager of Residentia Hermon, “However, we managed in large part to the surplus food we collect daily from Checkers Hyper Mayville.”

The store contacted the home more than a year ago. “They wanted to treat our residents on Mandela Day. They told us we could collect surplus food from them and guided us through the application process. During the hard lockdown the donation of food and other grocery items came in particularly handy. We are very grateful to have a partner like Checkers, on whom we can depend for support at all times.”

The home was established in early 1970s and offers residents three meals a day, medical and other care. “Residents and their families pay for our services, but we hardly break even from those contributions, so donations of any kind are always welcome.

“We were particularly heartened when the Checkers team showed up again on Mother’s Day and Father’s Day last year. They took over our kitchen and cooked meals for our residents,” adds Smith.

Checkers is a subsidiary of the Shoprite Group, which seeks to bring about change to its communities by fighting hunger. Since the start of the national lockdown, the Group has donated surplus food of over R57 million to 336 organisations, of which Residentia Hermon is one.  

“We seek to form long-term partnerships as we believe this is the best way to make a meaningful difference in the lives of our fellow South Africans. In the past financial year, we made surplus food donations of R95 million to over 400 organisations across the country,” says Lunga Schoeman, the Group’s CSI Manager.

Further hunger relief efforts include the investment in over 100 community food gardens, with support in the form of 18-months’ training in permaculture methods, donations of gardening tools and infrastructure as well as plant material.