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The success of three community food gardens in Botshabelo, Free State, motivated Shoprite to donate indigenous and fruit trees to community members to ensure greater food security and further expand its support in the area.
Shoprite has been assisting the Botshabelo community since 2017 – including three community food gardens, six early childhood development (ECD) centres and various surplus food beneficiaries.
The Trees for Home project provides community members with fruit trees, as well as the necessary training and tools to grow food at home.
“We are extremely grateful for Shoprite’s support. Planting these trees at our homes empowers us to take food supply into our own hands and become more self-sustainable.”
- Paulos Khiba, one of the community members who received trees to plant at his home
Botshabelo community member Paulos Khiba receives trees from Mapuleng Nokha, Back Admin Manager Shoprite Botshabelo Mall (left) and Nkeleko Ntsiu, Front End Controller Shoprite Botshabelo Mall (right).
“Shoprite is committed to addressing hunger relief and food security in vulnerable communities across South Africa. We believe that fresh, nutritious food should be accessible to all, and this initiative addresses it at a household level by equipping families to grow their own food.”
- Sanjeev Raghubir, Shoprite Group Sustainability Manager
The retailer supports more than 170 community food gardens and over 3 400 home gardens, which impacts almost 50 000 beneficiaries. In the past year, more than 2 500 community members were trained in sustainable food gardening, assisting them to grow nutritious and organic food.
Additional information:
- Shoprite supports three community food gardens in the Botshabelo area: the Ntataise Pre-school's food garden, Kgaugelo Ya Sechaba and the Free State Rural Women Assembly Agroecological Hub.
- In addition, the retailer has invested more than R100 000 in the Botshabelo community since January 2020 by assisting 11 community organisations through the Shoprite Community Network.
- It also supports the Leratong Children’s Home and Kgaugelo Ya Sechaba with surplus food donations.