Stories from the kitchen: 3rd Quarter 2016

Premier Foods delivering our bread. Our contract just got renewed for the next year and Toti got their first official bread delivery from them in Spetember.

This past month The Domino Foundation reached a MASSIVE milestone, preparing and delivering 90 000 meals for the hungry in our community!

Thanks to the generosity of local business, schools, and individuals we’re able to impact so many children and adults monthly, an incredible opportunity to impact lives. Our Sandwich Kitchen based in Durban North prepares and delivers on average 4 700 sandwiches per week to a number of hospitals and church ministries and Durban schools where learners don’t have a packed lunch. This number doesn’t include sandwiches, which get donated from Danville Park Girls High School, Our Lady of Fatima and Maris Stella School and Bread Buddies.

Our Toti kitchen, run in partnership with Kingsway Church International, has grown in leaps and since it opened in April bounds thanks to the support of the local community. Almost 6 000 sandwiches have been distributed averaging 350 a week since the opening. These sarmies go to two schools and one crèche.

Recently the Grade 8’s and 9’s of Embury College became more aware of the plight of some of our hungry children and delivered peanut butter and mayonnaise and then made 200 sandwiches. The Toti Kitchen has also given out 30 relief packs to families in crisis in the area and is helping to deliver JAM porridge to two crèches in the Ezimbokindweni area.

Thank you to everyone who has a heart for feeding and contributes – your support, donations and volunteer time is impacting lives. Just ask the teacher from Doon Heights Primary!

 

 

Stories from the Kitchen: 2nd Quarter 2016

The Feeding Programme has been exceptionally busy over the last few months, an exciting sign in realising our vision of communities where no child is to hungry to concentrate or learn. This is especially important as more and more families battle to provide enough nutritious meals in South Africa’s growing food crisis which has been further negatively affected by the weakening rand. Simply, families cannot afford to buy food and if they do it’s too little or not nearly nutritious enough.

In light of this the Domino Foundation bought attention to World Hunger Day through the “Fight the Plight” initiative, raising funds for our feeding programmes that distribute over 3500 meals every school day through our two sandwich kitchens (Durban and Toti) and our soup Kitchen in Brookdale. Our Relief Kitchen provides relief hampers and meals to families in crisis.

The month of May also saw the exciting launch of the Sandwich Kitchen in Amanzimtoti in partnership with Kingsway Church International. Working closely with local schools to identify the most vulnerable learners the Toti Sandwich provides delicious sandwiches to these schoolchildren who don’t have a packed lunch. The Toti Feeding Kitchen is currently making and delivering 30 sandwiches to each of the three participating schools daily with hopes to expand the programme soon.

Just to get a snapshot of how massive and far reaching the feeding programme is,  for the month of May alone 78 640 meals were prepared and delivered to vulnerable communities of Durban and 600 sandwiches were prepared and delivered from Toti. The Feeding Programme has also welcomed three new Amaoti creches totalling 50 more kids and is about to start training four new schools in the Point area – Pickering Street, Winder Street and Point Rd (Mahatma Ghandi Rd). Children from these schools will receive JAM porridge daily.

If you have a heart for feeding and want to know more about our programme and how to get involved have a look at our detailed and informative #KnowYourNPO posts on #Feeding. We’d love to have you!

New season, new roles

With a new season comes new leadership. As the Domino Foundation increases its capacity to reach more communities there have been some internal shifts to ensure that the hands who do this work are passionate, skilled and ready to impact lives.

At the beginning of the year Mickey Wilkins stepped down as CEO of the Domino Foundation. After twelve incredible years of leading the non-profit Mickey has now decided to look after the sustainability of Domino and has started Domino Business. As of February 2016 the Domino Foundation welcomed in a new CEO, Richard Mun-Gavin, lead pastor of Cogs Church. Not only does Richard bring a wealth of pastoral experience but his passion for people means he’s more than ready to take Domino into a new season of growth.

Shaun Tait has officially moved into the role of  COO and is overseeing the day to day operations of all the programmes and its staff. Although a tall task Shaun has slid into his role with effort and ease.

After heading up the ECD team since its inception Toni Wilkins has decided to focus her attentions on the Life Skills programme and counselling at the Door of Hope Counselling Centre. The team is now been led by the capable Jessica King, who moved over from donor relations. Jessica is more than qualified for the position and brings her unique learnings from her studies, a Bachelor of Social Science in Organisational Psychology and Industrial Sociology and a Foundation Phase Teaching qualification and is currently Clinical Psychology. Jessica also handles the Domino volunteers.

And in the feeding programme Cathy Whittle has taken over the reigns as Programme Manager. Cathy comes from the cooking industry and has the heaps of experience needed to steer the many Domino feeding projects in the right direction. In case you’ve forgotten, that’s our Sandwich Kitchen, Soup Kitchen and Relief Kitchen. Past Project Manager, Brenda Scheepers has moved onto an exciting venture with Domino Business, which you can read more about here.

#KnowYourNPO – Feeding

As part of the Domino Foundation’s #KnowYourNPO campaign we’re unpacking each of our programmes and this we’re shining a light on our FEEDING programme.

#1 Our two Sandwich Kitchens, Soup Kitchen and Relief Kitchen serve close to 4 500 hearty meals every day to vulnerable children in the greater Durban area, making sure they’re never too hungry to concentrate or learn. Altogether 33 crèches, 10 schools, 2 health institutions and one church are part of the feeding programme.

#2 Whether it be in a crèche, school or a family in crisis our goal is to serve up delicious and nutritious meals to those who need it most.

• Our passionate Soup Kitchen staff prepare porridge and soup that’s delivered to local crèches as well as TAFTA, Happy Hours Mental Health School, the Amaoti clinic and holiday clubs.
• Our Sandwich Kitchen prepares and distributes egg mayonnaise, peanut butter and polony sandwiches to vulnerable school children weekly.
• Our Relief Kitchen prepares scrumptious meals for families that are going through tough times. These families or individuals are brought to our attention through our other programmes or the Door of Hope Counseling Centre.

#3 Last year our amazing volunteers made 166 740 sandwiches and our 6 incredible Brookdale staff prepared 642 688 porridge and soup meals. Now that’s a lot of food!

#4 We all respond differently in crisis situations. During last year’s refugee crisis our Brookdale Soup Kitchen rose to the occasion, preparing an incredible 41 900 meals during the first week of the xenophobic attacks. The Relief Kitchen is always in need of ingredients to prepare meals tinned food, long life milk, cereals, tea, coffee, jam, sugar- if you can help let us know!

#5 Have you wondered how our feeding programme works? Well here’s all you need to know about it!

#6 Our two Sandwich Kitchens run on the generosity of our volunteers – their hands prepare the sandwiches that get delivered to many schools around the area! If you would like to join the enthusiastic team email volunteer@domino.org.za

#7 The reality is that the more donations we receive, the more young lives we can impact. It’s never been easier to donate than with using Zapper! Scan the Zapper South Africa QR code with your phone/tablet and donate to our feeding programme.

The month of MAY is synonymous with hunger

Did you know that an estimated that 10.7 million South African’s live on or below the food poverty line of *R11 per day? That’s R11 to spend on 3 meals or a more realistic occurrence, R11 to spend on one meal every single day.

Another statistic points out that **one in four South Africans suffer from hunger on a regular basis and more than half of the population are on the borderline of being hungry. Even though South Africa is a food secure nation unemployment, rising food prices, climate change and poor access to nutritious food means that a quarter of our population are vulnerable to hunger – a horrifying and shocking thought. To cope vulnerable households skip meals, cut meal sizes, buy cheap food that is expired or not nutritious or rely on food parcels and social grants that are never enough. Malnutrition, stunting and difficulty concentrating are just some of the gloomy affects of hunger. And that’s not even taking into account the heartbreaking feeling of being unable to feed your family or having the energy to succeed in school or work. Simply, hunger crushes the human spirit.

That’s why Domino is committed to supporting individuals rise above the line, every day. Our feeding programmes distribute over 3 500 meals every school day. But we need your help to increase this number and fight global poverty. 
With
 International World Hunger Day on May 28 we want to bring awareness around the plight of poverty that many face around the world, especially for our neighbors.

We need your help. To support our feeding programmes head on over to our donations page and help end hunger for good.

*Statistics South Africa, 2015

** Oxfam: https://www.wfp.org/hunger/stats

 

Walk for change

A big thanks must be said to the enthusiastic entrants who walked the SPAR Women’s Race, sharing their time, resources and smiles with the Domino Foundation’s feeding programme and raising over R4 000 for the sandwich kitchen.

As a feeding fundraiser the ladies joined the Domino Foundation team in walking or running the SPAR Women’s Race on Sunday June 7. Seventy-four Domino Foundation walkers joined the 17 000 plus entrants in walking the streets of Durban and donated a portion of their entry fee to the sandwich kitchen.

Walkers loved the lively atmosphere of the fun annual event and it was great to see the energetic support shown by the individuals and corporates, including Nedbank and Vopak staff. Spectators may have even noticed the Domino Foundation caps peaking out of the crowds as the Domino walkers proudly walked the event.

These funds will be used to purchase much-needed ingredients, like mayonnaise and peanut butter, to make and distribute over 3 600 nutritious sandwiches to needy schools in the North Durban area every week.

Feeding Effects May

Feeding is just exploding this year! Our vision is to feed the hungry in their most desperate time of need and as the number of volunteers and donors grow, we move closer to realising our dream of communities where no child is too hungry to concentrate and learn.

Sandwich Kitchen

It’s amazing to witness the Durban North community taking ownership of the feeding programme by donating goods and preparing sandwiches. This past month Durban North Primary School prepared sandwiches for Sibonginhlanhla Primary School in Waterloo, Verulam.

This was a huge relief to the school as it’s located in an impoverished community and they weren’t successful with their application for government feeding. Every Thursday sandwiches are made by the Danville Park Girls High School, which are handed out to the learners the next morning for their 10:30am break.

The school is over the moon with the weekly donation with one teacher saying, “It is so much easier to teach children that are no longer hungry,” and this encouraging sentiment is shared by the other teachers. These meals really does make a difference in positively developing the children and giving them the energy to learn.

Brookdale Kitchen

The dedicated staff in the Brookdale Kitchen are continuing to make soup and porridge for our creches and various other centres they support. The kitchen has recently added the Wellness Centre to their 3700 mouth they feed. This organisation works with squatters who are living in the Mangrove Swamps and train them up to help them integrate into society. The Domino Foundation is providing soup and sandwiches to them every day.

Veggie tunnels

The veggie tunnels have been continuing to grow from strength to strength. A big thank you must be said to L&G for their generous donation of garden tools and equipment. The timing of this donation could not have been better and all the affected staff are truly excited about receiving these items as it will greatly improve the tunnels’ productivity. It has certainly put a new spring into their steps!

Read the incredible story of how the veggie tunnels started, from planting the seeds, to the project taking root, to it flourishing into the fruitful programme it is today.

Breaking new ground

Breaking new ground

From it’s humble beginnings of a single garden to growing into a sustainable business model that beautifies the area; the Domino Foundation’s flourishing vegetable tunnels are creating employment opportunities and providing a much-needed food source for the Brookdale Feeding Kitchen.

 The seed is planted…

The idea for the Domino Foundation’s vegetable tunnels sprouted out of a simple need, to supply the Brookdale Kitchen in Amaoti with fresh produce to help feed an average of 1,750 mouths per month. The first seed was planted in July 2013 by Angel Projects, an integral roleplayer to the initial stages of the programme by driving corporate sponsors to fund the expensive tunnels.

A year later Lance Turner, now Project Manager of the Vegetable Tunnels, joined the Domino Foundation team. He got straight to work flexing his green fingers by experimenting and exploring the success of different vegetables. Lance has a passion for growing produce and with a lot of research, training and advice he pushed the project to new heights. Despite his “zero farming experience” he managed to create and roll out a successful farming model that converted a neglected space into a thriving mini farm land.

 The Domino seed takes root…

 Built on a underutilised land owned by Brookdale Secondary School, adjacent to the Brookdale Kitchen, and bordering the impoverished area of the Amaoti community, the vegetables tunnels were located in the ideal place to sow back into Domino feeding programmes and increase the prpgramme’s ability to feed. Following Lance’s guidance the Domino team calculated the most productive way to use the land, determine the life cycles of plants and gage the customer’s demand. Instead of growing a large range of products a smaller, more consistent range of vegetables were tended to.

 Healthy seedlings appear…

‘Getting to market’ has been a fun and social way to spread the good message of the Domino Foundation’s tunnels to the local community. Every week the team has a busy time harvesting the produce and selling it to key customers. These include the Brookdale Kitchen, which cooks meals for our Amaoti schools; the Nedbank Contact Centre; Tevo; Oricol Environmental Services; the Ladies Meeting; homeschooling moms and the COGS and Domino staff. The funds generated from these sales are ploughed back into the project actually enable it to become self-sufficient (after start-up costs of making the tunnels which were sponsored). With such a high demand for fresh quality produce the only threshold is the programme’s own capacity.

Fruits (or vegetables) of Domino’s labour…

One of the most amazing spin-offs from the vegetable gardens have been the handful of employment opportunities created. The project employs disabled people from I-Can / Khulisani, a NPO that helps with the upliftment of young adults with disabilities. The staff do an incredible job at nurturing the land and weed, plant, water, fertilise and maintain the crop rotation for all fourteen of the tunnels and the open gardens. Through this project the team has witnessed the amazing transformation of the staff from shy individuals to happy, healthy and productive workers! The gardens empower the staff to grow their own food and of the eight staff working on site many have taken this knowledge and skills to their own gardens, enabling them to support themselves and their families in a healthy and positive way.

Germinating more seeds….

The careful management of the project and the incredible support from staff, donors and customers has made the Domino Veggie Tunnels a wonderful tale of hope. There is still so much potential to scale up, both in terms of infrastructure and capacity. Currently there are fourteen tunnels with space for two more and a massive piece of land flagged for open gardens. The team is busy investigating a possible borehole which will make continuity of water supply the winter much easier and there’s the very real possibility of the superfood Moringa being added to the mix. The project also hopes to sell produce to a local clinic at the Amaoti school where senior citizens collect their medicines.

Growing a garden…

Lance also envisions, “a model of building vegetable gardens that can be taught and duplicated in the community. Once we have the place properly established we can hopefully bring in people who are most vulnerable to food insecurity and teach them how to grow enough vegetables for themselves and even earn an income. There’s an opportunity to generate an income stream from this project and the big vision is to use this project as a cash crop to support Domino’s many feeding programmes.”

We need YOUR help to complete our two vacant tunnels and open gardens! Assist us in growing a garden to feed EVERYONE who needs nutritious food.

Fresh news from gardens

Veggies and herbs recently harvested are: spinach, brinjal, green peppers, red peppers, salad tomatoes, beetroot, spring onion, coriander, mint, rosemary, thyme, organum, jam tomatoes, cucumbers.

 

Feeding Effects March & April

With the recent xenophobic attacks the Domino Foundation united with other Durban NPOS to help feed the thousands of refugees. As we have a feeding kitchen in the affected areas of Phoenix and the staff to cook meals we did what we do best during the xenophobic crisis- FEED! An incredible 41 000 meals were prepared and distributed during the two week ‘crisis’ period.

Our Brookdale Kitchen and Sandwich Kitchen worked around the clock to prepare and distribute thousands of meals to displaced individuals. A huge thank you must go out to everyone including schools, business and individuals, who opened their hearts and pockets to the cause by donating tons of food to be used in the preparation of meals and volunteering their time to make sandwiches. Over the two weeks we were able to prepare an incredible 41 000 meals.

During the xenophobic crisis we continued to distribute 3600 nutritious sandwiches a week to our children from schools in the North Durban community. These children don’t receive a neatly packed lunch at break and our sandwiches provide them with the necessary nutrients to concentrate in class.

Our ladies at the soup kitchen were stars during the crisis period and managed to cook up soup and stew meals for the refugee while still ensuring that the 3700 ‘normal’ meals of porridge and soup made their way to our children from our creches. Once again, these meals are lifesavers, providing kids with a healthy breakfast so that they can grow big and strong.

Our veggie gardens in Brookdale were relatively unaffected by the xenophobic attacks and proceeded with business as usual. The garden workers from I-Can continued to gently nurture the land, growing goodness on the ground. This harvest of vegetables goes directly into providing ingredients for our yummy soups and any excess is sold to the local community and corporates to generate money to plough back into the project.

Oricol Environmental Systems were extremely generous in sponsoring our fourteenth tunnel and eighth open garden. They also facilitated a big tram build in which we were able to plant spinach in both the tunnel and open garden and donated 6m cube of compost from Living Earth allowing for the recompost of three tunnels.

Rachel Lees, a past volunteer, spent some of her time chatting to the I-Can workers while she was out visiting from England. In this interview she discovered how the Domino foundation and I- Can are not only bringing life to the land, but to the people who work it.

Feeding Effect 11/14

The Feeding Programme has had an incredible year overall, from AMAZING donations, community support and thousands fed daily!

 

The Domino Foundation Feeding Programme reaches the needy in communities and fulfils our Christian mandate of feeding the hungry. We support crèches, schools, churches, counselling centres, aftercare programmes, and youth holiday clubs. Our activities include but are not limited to:

• Crèche Feeding Project
• School Sandwich Project
• Food Parcels for families in crisis
• Monitoring and Evaluation

Overall, daily we feed 2264 individuals daily porridge, soup or sandwiches. That’s 2264 children (and some adults) who have the nutrition they need to be productive and empowered for the day.

We’d like to thank and honour all the incredible staff and volunteers who have worked and served in our two kitchens (the sandwich kitchen in Durban North and the soup kitchen in Brookdale.) Their hard work and selflessness has allowed us to feed the hungry in their most desperate time of need and move closer to realising our dream of communities where no child is too hungry to concentrate and learn.

Farewell Sheila!

At our annual Sandwich Kitchen Christmas Tea Party, we bid farewell to the wonderful leader of our sandwich kitchen, Sheila Simpkins. For 2 years, she served in the kitchen, lead the volunteers and managed the way it was so excellently run. We wish her luck on this new season in her life, and thank her for all her amazing work!

The Annual Sandwich Kitchen Christmas Party

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Read more from our November Domino Effects Newsletter:

Babies Home Effect

ECD Effect

Life Skills Effect

Literacy Effect

General Overview