More than 5 loaves and 2 fishes for Bitou's needy

PLETTENBERG BAY NEWS - More than 15 000 Bitou residents with no means of putting food on the table were given food for a week thanks to a collaborative effort between the municipality and other role players.

Bitou Municipality contributed more than R1-milllion towards purchasing food for locals suffering due to the Covid-19 lockdown.

"The programme was undertaken through the Bitou Covid-19 coordinating structure that includes various sectors like tourism, health, Hospice and business chambers," said municipal spokesperson Andile Namntu.

With this money an order for food, to make up 3 500 food parcels, was placed with the Spar group last week Thursday and the next day more than 73 tons of food were delivered in Plettenberg Bay.

The Garden Route Municipality also donated 120 food parcels for distribution in Bitou.

Community volunteers then jumped in to complete the mammoth task of packaging the food in time for delivery over the Easter weekend.

Included in each food parcel were masks donated by the community-driven campaign Masks4All in an attempt to reduce the spread of the virus and safeguard the most vulnerable in the local community.

While the packing got under way, the municipality, with the assistance of councillors and community development workers (CDWs), started preparing the beneficiary lists.

As part of the criteria, beneficiaries should not be earning a current income or receiving a grant – people with little or no means of buying food. Beneficiaries were identified from the municipality's existing indigent list and the list of people who filed Sassa application forms about two weeks ago.

The handing out of parcels was supervised and recorded by councillors and CDWs.

Some parcels were delivered door-to-door, some were dropped off at a point and handed out from there, and some were distributed directly from vehicles.

Each parcel was made up to feed a family of five for a week – to reach about 15 000 people.

Although this was a once-off relief effort from the municipality, there are several community-driven projects to ensure food security during the lockdown period.

More than 3 500 food parcels were packed for distribution among Plettenberg Bay's poorest communities.