Nutrition takes a backseat as breadwinners battle to feed their families

Breadwinners are embarrassed, ashamed and humiliated because they can no longer provide for their families.

This is according to Shaheda Omar, clinical director of The Teddy Bear Clinic for Abused Children, who was responding to the release of the Child Gauge report on food and nutrition safety on Thursday. The report painted a bleak picture of hunger and hopelessness worsened by Covid-19.

“You had families that you knew could provide for their basic needs, but with the hard lockdown, all of that was no longer possible because informal employment could not be done,” she said.

Although the government increased social grants, many families still battled to survive as food prices and joblessness surged.

Omar said some parents had been reduced to begging, and the Teddy Bear clinic had to start organising food parcels despite its real mandate being to provide therapy for children who are victims of crime. 

‘A loaf of bread is never enough’

Though the government increased social grants, many families still battled to survive as food prices and joblessness surged.

Soweto grandmother Nqobile Khoza told Sunday Times Daily she was taking care of her three grandchildren, adding the past year had been very hard because the children spent more time at home. That meant she had to stretch the little money she had to be able to buy more food.

“It was really hard. Providing three meals a day for children daily is not an easy thing. When they are in school, at least the feeding schemes there help and I usually worry about giving them dinner and what they eat on weekends,” she said, adding that one loaf of bread was never enough for her three grandsons.

Another grandmother, Axolile Ndlazi, who stays with six grandchildren, said grocery shopping was a challenge, but she tried to be creative.

“I buy a big bag of mealie meal, a bag of potatoes because I can make a lot of things with potatoes, sometimes I make slap chips, other days I make mashed potatoes and I can also add potatoes to other things that I cook, such as stews,” she explained.

She said her main concern was making sure her grandchildren did not go to bed without food, so she tried to give them food that will keep them full for longer, such as pap.

‘Nutrition is not a priority’

It is not only grannies taking care of children. A 17-year-old girl from Soweto told Sunday Times Daily she was looking after her three siblings, aged 12, 14 and 16. She dropped out of school because she was not coping with being a parent and a pupil at the same time. She uses her hairdresser salary to supplement the government’s grant money. She said she bought food that was quick to make at the expense of nutrition.

Omar said more work needed to be done to educate people about nutritional lifestyles and to encourage good healthy eating habits.

“People need to know that obesity is not prosperity. Unhealthy food such as sugary food makes children irritable and edgy. Primary caregivers need to be taught about healthy food choices, and the cost of heathy food should also be addressed because food should not be a choice but a right every child should have,” she said.