600 lunch packs a day sustain hungry students at UCT

Hungry students are being fed 600 lunches a day in a feeding scheme that is growing in leaps and bounds at the University of Cape Town (UCT).

The scheme was started in April 2018 after UCT’s department of social development realised how many students were going hungry while attending lectures.

Deputy vice-chancellor professor Loretta Feris, speaking at a fridge donation event in support of the feeding scheme, said: “For the past two years UCT had worked hard on student finance and accommodation. Food was the third element.”

“We wanted to ensure that students were able to perform academically, and to do what they had come here to do,” said Feris.

UCT said in a statement that the lunches were made up, packed and distributed by volunteers. Each lunch consists of two sandwiches, fruit and fruit juice.

They are distributed on UCT’s upper campus, the College of Music, Hiddingh campus and the Child Guidance Clinic.

“The food queue puts a physical face to food insecurity. It also raises questions around viability; how to keep feeding the many in a climate of austerity,” said UCT.

Matheko Moshoeshoe-Madi, from the department of social development’s strategic fuel fund, said: “We advocate for education, but we are going through issues of poverty. Yet students are willing to come to varsity to learn, not knowing where their next plate of food is coming from. We wanted to help.”

Student hunger is a growing national challenge, said UCT. The National Research Foundation’s Stephen Devereux made headlines in 2018 when he reported that more than 30% of the country’s students were food insecure, compared with 26% of the population.

The situation is aggravated by the problems at the National Student Financial Aid Scheme.