Drakenstein Food Centre

The Community Nutrition Ministry currently operates 4 primary programs, each with a particular focus and community need. They are:

Faced Program
FACED stands for “Feed A Child Every Day.” In Paarl, like many other rural communities, the reality is that many of the children in our most needy communities often receive their most substantial meal through their government (or private) sponsored meal program at school.
Holiday times present the biggest threat to the nutrition of these hundreds of undernourished children. The “FACED” acronym was coined when key leaders in the Paarl community had a series of discussions in 2010 revolving around community needs...particularly for children...during the Soccer World Cup. Collectively, we determined that our main area needed to be food, so we piloted a holiday feeding program during that longer World Cup holiday.
The program was so well received, that we decided to continue the effort for each substantial holiday period throughout the year. Since that time, as we are able to raise the needed funds, we are feeding between 800 and 1200 children per school holiday, usually at 8 different community sites.

MOD Program
Monte Christo Miqlat (MCM) submitted tenders for the MOD Program (Mass Opportunity Development Centres) in 6 regions and was awarded the tenders in 4 regions (Metro South, Cape Winelands/Overberg, Eden Karoo and West Coast). This comprises 51 schools in 27 towns, totaling 10 500 children to be supplied with one sandwich (primary schools) or two sandwiches (secondary schools) and a fruit on a daily basis. Subcontractors have been appointed in each town to prepare and supply the required nutrition. The geographical area covered ranges from Murraysburg in Eden Karoo to Vredendal on the West Coast and the exposure of MCM is an area covering the whole of the Western Cape.

The MOD program was launched by the Department of Sport and Culture in collaboration with the Department of Social Services of the Western Cape Provincial Administration. The purpose of the program is to support the after-school recreation program of the Department of Sport and Culture. The Department of Social Services in collaboration with the Department of Sport and Culture launched THE Food Parcel Project.

Targeted Feeding Program
In September of 2012, Monte Christo Ministries was appointed by the Department of Social Development to manage the government’s Sustainable Livelihood Program, called Targeted Feeding. This is a government funded program designed to place a food distribution center in the heart of Mbekweni in order to provide meals to the most vulnerable children and families.
The program works on a referral basis and only beneficiaries who were referred by the clinic can collect a meal.

Community Meal Program
MCM also has the opportunity to get involved in a number of additional food distribution programs on a smaller scale through our various other ministries as follows:

1) Tiffany’s and Lukhanyo Family Food: We are working to identify and support the primary care givers of needy families in our target communities. At Both Tiffany’s and Luykhanyo, we distribute family portions of food each weekday. Our hope is that the food will be brought home, where the meal can be enjoyed as a family. Our intention is that that this activity can be one of many unifying opportunities to restore the family unit.
2) During our winter months (May-September), MCM also sells (at a very low cost) large quantities of soup (20 liter buckets) and bread to individuals, service organizations, businesses and churches for distribution where they see the need.