AFFT launches a new recipe book to raise funds for its new home
 Preview | AFFT co-founder and CEO Debbie Higgs and AFFT co-founder Neil Higgs | 1.38 MB | Download |
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 Preview | One of the child-headed homes that receives aid from the AFFT programme | 1.34 MB | Download |
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AFFT is hoping to raise enough money for a brand new home for the charity, by launching a recipe book which contains tried-and-trusted family recipes that will provide readers and their families with recipes for various home-cooked meals.
AFFT is a non-profit organisation run by volunteers, and is essentially focused on equipping and supplying school feeding programmes. The Florida-based charity is also involved with a number of community self-help and empowerment projects too.
From humble beginnings in 2006 when a group of five friends made sandwiches for township children on a weekly basis, AFFT has rapidly expanded and today runs feeding projects at eleven schools and nine crèches, feeding more than 11 000 children per day.
AFFT co-founder and CEO Debbie Higgs points out that most of the charity’s feeding programmes are aimed at primary schools in informal settlements like Soweto, Slovoville and Kagiso, where the food provided there is often the children’s only meal of the day.
“During our work with these schools, we came to the realisation that some of the children were particularly vulnerable, having been orphaned by AIDS and often living in child or granny-headed households,” she explains. “To make matters worse, these children are often not receiving any grant or aid from the government, whether it be through ignorance, fear of being institutionalised, or a lack of documentation such as birth certificates.”
AFFT currently supports 70 of these particularly vulnerable households, which are identified by the school, by supplying them with additional monthly food parcels. These parcels consist of supplemental foods that are specifically-designed to enhance the immune system, in addition to basics such as tea, sugar, starch, seasonings, cooking oil, tinned goods, jams and spices.
Higgs explains that AFFT has officially launched the recipe book as part of its bid to raise between R800 000 and R1,2-million to purchase a home large enough to store more than three tons of food that is currently distributed by the charity.
“We are currently based in a three-bedroom residential property and, due to the increase in demand for our much-needed services, we are beginning to run out of space. By purchasing a larger purpose-built facility, we will be in the position to handle a larger amount of parcels more efficiently, which will ultimately enable us to extend our reach to more than 100 of these most vulnerable child-headed families,” she explains.
AFFT has printed a total of 1 000 books which contain dozens of family favourite recipes, ranging from breakfasts and starters, to dinners and desserts. Higgs adds: “All of the recipes in the book are delicious, yet simple and cost-effective, and have been kindly donated by local families that have enjoyed these tasty meals for generations.”
Higgs points out that the overall costs of printing the books is R70 000. AFFT will be selling each recipe book for R150, in an attempt to raise at least R80 000 to contribute to the charity’s overall fundraising project. “If we manage to sell all copies, we will look at printing a second round of books to raise additional funds.”
Looking to the future, Higgs admits that the economic downturn has had a negative effect on donations coming in to AFFT. She does; however, remain optimistic that the charity will be able to raise the required funds for its new home, through various additional fundraisers such as golf days and family fun days, within the next two years.
“Although the recession has slowed down donations slightly, South Africans continue to display a considerable amount of generosity towards our cause, and that is something we are extremely grateful for. Our vision is ‘to feed children in the name of Christ, in order to bring hope to the hopeless’, and I have every bit of confidence that our generous donors will play a major role in helping us move to our new premises by 2014,” she notes.
The AFFT school feeding programme delivers mainly vegetables to designated schools on a daily basis. The food is cooked by members of the school governing body (SGB) or parents recruited by the SGB, in order to maximise community empowerment and ownership of the projects.“While we equip and supply the projects, it is the parents and community volunteers who run the project, do the cooking and serve the food. In this way, we encourage schools and communities to own the entire project,” Higgs concludes.
Anyone interested in purchasing the recipe book can contact Africa Food For Thought on (011) 472 5727 or 084 505 9020 or log on to www.afft.org.za
Ends
Notes to the editor
There are numerous photographs specific to this press release. Please visit http://media.ngage.co.za
About AFFT
Africa Food for Thought is a non-profit organisation, run by volunteers, which is essentially focused on equipping and supplying school feeding programmes. We are also involved in a number of community projects, self-help/empowerment projects. Our aim is to help those who need it the most: the vulnerable and marginalised. Our vision is ‘to feed children in the name of Christ, in order to bring hope to the hopeless’.
AFFT Contact
Debbie Higgs
AFFT CEO
Phone: (011) 764 5283
Cell: 084 505 9020
Email: debbiehiggs03 [at] gmail [dot] com
Web: www.afft.org.za
Media Contact
Kelly Farthing
NGAGE Public Relations
Phone: (011) 867-7763
Fax: 086 512 3352
Cell: 079 367 7889
Email: kelly [at] ngage [dot] co [dot] za
Web: www.ngage.co.za