Add Hope teams, NGO leaders, media and influencers gathered in Hillbrow on 11 October 2017 at NGO Mould, Empower, Serve (MES) to experience how hope is stronger than hunger this World Hunger Month. MES is one of 137 NGOs supported by Add Hope. With World Hunger Month in October, including World Food Day on 16th October, KFC is aiming to raise over R5 million in Add Hope donations which will go to feeding over 120 000 children around the country at NGOs like MES.
The MES Dinaledi Preschool children challenged influencers including Sthembiso Khoza, Proverb, Smash Afrika, DJ Sabby, Hayley Owen and Nicole da Silva to three activities – soccer, chess and crafts, to show how essential good nutrition is for the development of physical, psychosocial and cognitive skills at an early age.
“Too many children are living in poverty, and a lack of nutritious food can give them a really rough start in life. They have enough challenges to face. We can all make a difference, and Add Hope is a simple way to do it,” said actor Sthembizo Khoza, who is a passionate ambassador for Add Hope. Actress Hayley Owen said, “These kids come from a very tough area, and for many of them, the meal they get here at MES is there only meal of the day. I’m really happy to see how well they’re doing, and hope we can reach more children if we all pull together.”
KFC Public Affairs Director for Africa, Thabisa Mkhwanazi, says the World Hunger Month campaign focuses on the message – hope is stronger than hunger. ““Our objective is to create an engaging experience to drive conversations around the hunger crisis in Africa, at the same time showing the hope that centres such as MES Dinaledi provide. We’re exploring how better nutrition in early childhood can have a lasting impact on physical, cognitive and social development, giving the next generation hope by unlocking potential and boosting prosperity. It’s the single most important factor in creating a better future for these children. When you add hope, you give a child so much more than food.”
In a country where hunger and poor nutrition pose a major risk to the development of millions of children, initiatives like Add Hope that channel funds towards feeding children are playing a vital role. The pressure is on to maintain levels of feeding and increase the children Add Hope is able to reach, and Mkhwanazi says that KFC wants to partner with customers to do more. “Statistics SA shows that 51% of people are living in poverty, most of whom are children. Malnutrition is rife and this has a lifelong impact. We need to do everything we can to turn the tide on hunger. As KFC, we continue to increase its own CSI contributions, based on a percentage of profits. We appreciate every customer donation as these donations enable Add Hope to keep increasing the amount of children we reach,” says Mkhwanazi. Add Hope works because it’s a small donation that is quick to add – it’s really the power of the collective to change lives. Hope really is stronger than hunger.”
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To find out more about the Add Hope, visit www.addhope.co.za
#AddHope
About Add Hope:
Add Hope, a powerful initiative that sees KFC customers and staff unite in the fight against hunger, has now reached the milestone of feeding 120 000 children around the country nutritious meals, every day, through supporting sustainable feeding programmes at a growing list of 137 beneficiary organisations.
Add Hope raises money through customer donations added at the till or on the Add Hope website, as well as donating a percentage of KFC profits as its own Corporate Social Responsibility contribution. In 2016, Add Hope raised R39 million, with every cent of customer R2 donations going towards feeding children. Over the past seven years, Add Hope has raised close to R400 million in KFC corporate social responsibility donations and customer donations combined.
About KFC:
KFC is part of Yum! Brands, Inc., the world’s largest restaurant company in terms of system restaurants with more than 36,000 restaurants in more than 117 countries and 1.4 million company and franchise associates. Yum! is ranked #214 on the Fortune 500 List, with revenues of more than $12 billion in 2011. KFC Corporation, based in Louisville, Kentucky, is the world’s most popular chicken restaurant chain, specialising and famous for its Original Recipe®. The secret recipe of 11 herbs and spices was first developed in 1940 and the same recipe is still used across the world today.
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