RISE Mzansi One Meal, One Student campaign is preparing food for students at the University of Venda. Picture/ RISE Mzansi Facebook (supplied)
The RISE Mzansi Youth and Student Chapters is growing its feeding scheme campaign, One Meal, One Student, hoping to cater nationally for South African higher education students.
This is after more than 100 000 students encountered financial exclusion from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) at the beginning of the year.
They did not receive their allowances to cover essential needs, hence more students were homeless and hungry at the start of the academic year.
One Meal, One Student has an active feeding scheme for students at the University of the Free State, the University of Venda, the Cape Peninsula University of Technology and the University of the Western Cape.
The aim of the campaign is to provide defunded students with one meal per student at a time, to avoid malnutrition, lower academic achievement, mental illness and lack of concentration in class, which then leads to scholars dropping out.
“This cycle not only squanders the invaluable resources poured into higher education, but also perpetuates the cycle of poverty and inequality across generations,” said Lawrence Manaka, RISE Mzansi Youth and Chapters convenor.
Additionally, Manaka emphasised that a RISE Mzansi government is against students being victims of an uncaring government, where they are not prioritised, hence the birth of the feeding scheme to help alleviate the difficulties faced by students.
He said if the party was elected, it would combat food insecurity, given that 18.2 million are poverty-stricken and 32.1% of the country’s population faces unemployment.
“Given the prevalence of food insecurity and hunger, a RISE government will use the combination of government income grants, food discount vouchers for grant recipients and small-scale farming to improve food security,” said Manaka.
The Star
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