CAPE TOWN - Neighbourhood Farm – an organisation dedicated to promoting good nutrition and food knowledge to children – has opened their very first vegetable tuck shop at Kommetjie Primary School in Cape Town.
Heavily overweight or badly undernourished – a large number of South Africans fall into the categories of people suffering over- and under-nutrition.
Shopping in supermarkets significantly increases body mass index (BMI), and contributes to eating more processed and highly processed foods and less fresh fruit and vegetables, this is according to a recent study.
One in every five pre-school children in South Africa do not receive adequate nutrition, negatively impacting their development. But at the same time, many are already overweight or obese.
South Africa has a progressive Constitution, with the right to adequate food counted among our basic human rights. But while there are feeding schemes, food programmes and social grants abound to ensure our people are fed, still millions are going hungry. By Thabo Molelekwa of Health-e News.
Mostly unhealthy food options are sold to South African school children with low nutrient energy dense foods (chips, sweets) and sugar sweetened beverages, this is according to the Scoping study on School tuck shops in South Africa.
Child labour in agriculture is currently on the rise all around the world, and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has warned that the trend is undermining efforts to end hunger and poverty.
Work is underway to not only teach the school children of Gauteng the basics of balanced and healthy eating, but to also train them to share the information with others.
In South Africa, an average of 12 million people (almost a quarter of the population) go to bed hungry every night – yet our country has the largest proportion of food wastage in Africa.
On World Hunger Day, an overview of the country’s hungry people shows that South Africa’s social grants are just not enough for indigent families facing malnutrition.
Hidden away in the Joburg inner city, unknown to thousands of people who pass by every day, is a small farm producing massive quantities of fresh vegetables and healthy juices.
Learners who get free meals at school as part of the National School Nutrition Programme are more likely to concentrate in class, be punctual, attend school regularly.
Be in the know with our free weekly newsletter. We deliver a round-up of our top stories and insightful reads from across the web.