Bread for the Nation

May 2012 - In South Africa, millions of people live in utmost poverty in informal settlements. Living conditions are adverse and people live mostly in tiny, single room, so-called shanti’s or shacks make of corrugated iron. Many of these people do not have work, resulting in them not being able to eat more than one meager meal a day. Many children rely on their school for their only daily meal. It is not uncommon for children orphaned by the HIV-AIDS pandemic to live alone with their siblings in these conditions.

The overcrowded informal settlements have very few shops, and if they do, the food sold in these shops is very expensive. As the people living here have to walk or pay a taxi to get around, they do not always have a choice but to buy from these shops.

A client of Tips South Africa intends to provide a solution to alleviate this problem. The company has developed a containerized bakery unit and intends to place them in these poor areas. Interested people living in these areas will be invited to apply to become the owner and manager of these units. Each of these units will be able to supply bread, a staple food, to 2500 households per day, at less than half the price of bread sold in the shops. Not only will this project assist in empowering and training more people (especially women) to work and to own their own businesses, it will also assist in feeding the nation; both priorities of the South African government.

Tips South Africa has agreed to assist the client in putting a workable model in place and to obtain funding to pilot this much-needed project.