Cele wants you to help him make a mountain of food

Deputy Agriculture Minister Bheki Cele called on South Africans to donate food to the 12 million South Africans who go to bed hungry each day.

"I am appealing to all South Africans to contribute food towards the building of the food mountains ... so that the food [can] be distributed to the needy and hungry," he said at the launch of October food security month in Vanderbijlpark, Gauteng.

"I stand on this podium today... to make a clarion call towards the food mountain to all South Africans."

In a speech prepared for delivery, Cele said World Food Day would be held in Musina, Limpopo, on October 16, when the food mountain would be unveiled. Food would then be distributed to needy families.

He called for non-perishable food to be taken to collection points at department of agriculture offices and municipal offices countrywide.

Cele said the international relations and co-operation department of (Dirco) had partnered with the UN World Food Programme (WFP) to supply maize and beans to Lesotho. South African smallholders had supplied over 2260 metric tons of both maize and beans to the WFP to provide to Lesotho.