With Easter being a week away, Westville Senior Primary School (WSPS) embarked on an Easter-egg outreach project to spread joy to vulnerable communities. A total of 5000 Easter eggs were collected by the school for Westville Churches Food Bank to distribute to those in need.
Patsy Pillay, acting principal of Westville Senior Primary said the donations were contributed by the pupils and thanked parents for their contributions and generosity.
Kate Litzel, a representative from the Westville Churches Food Bank who led the Easter-egg collection drive, said: “This is not the first initiative by the Westville Food Bank. Since its establishment in 2020, the food bank was formed as a direct response to the huge need for food that arose as a result of the pandemic. The bank was formed by a group of 12 churches to enable anyone, through their direct relationships, to identify a family in need of food and then refer them to the food bank through one of the churches, to receive a food parcel,” she said.
Litzel added that the Easter eggs will be most welcome and much appreciated by the recipients of these parcels, both young and old, as luxuries are not at the forefront of their needs.
“The food parcels are tailored by size and family demographic. Larger families will therefore receive more food than smaller families. Those families with infants will receive an additional baby parcel containing formula, nappies, baby porridge and baby food. The standard food parcel consists of two large brown paper bags containing mealie meal, rice, tea, milk, soup powder, tinned meat, tinned fish, tinned vegetables, biscuits, oil and porridge,” said Litzel.
Over the last year, the Westville Churches Food Bank has distributed food parcels to families in Westville, Cato Manor, Central Durban, Reservoir Hills, Clermont, Pinetown, Mariannhill, Mariannridge, Cowies Hill, Botha’s Hill and even as far afield as Hammarsdale.
Litzel added that wherever residents of Westville have relationships, is as far as their parcels potentially can go. To date, the Food Bank has fed 8400 people with monthly food parcels.
