What an invigorating, gratifying, fun and exhausting week.

The generosity of the world has been so great. The amazing number of people donating funds and the speed at which the fund started gaining ground took us buy surprise. The realization that the funds donated would take up to 20 days to clear through the ‘GoGetFunding’ site was an unfortunate turn, as those starving needed immediate relief, but ‘Spar’ came to the rescue by offering for us to buy on credit. We started with a trial run at one of our houses, assembling 200 parcels, but quickly realized that a garage was definitely not big enough to feed the masses of Jeffreys Bay.

From the trail packs we made in the garage we distributed to those we had first come in contact with at the very back of Jeffery’s Bay’s poorer community. We felt this trial went well and decided that in order to make a difference in the community we needed to do at least 850 packs.

Looking for a bigger work site didn’t take long, as a very helpful church offered us the use of their premises - providing us with a massive area to pack was a blessing.

With the aim of feeding as many people as possible, as quickly as possible, we set a timeline - aiming to make our large drop off on Thursday the 23rd of April.

On the Tuesday morning a huge truck of food arrived at the church and we were set the challenge to packing and distributing the goods within two days. Each pack was planned to include: maize meal, rice, beans, soup, sugar,powdered milk, toilet paper and soap.

The community; however, came to the party and the donations started to flow in – bread, toothpaste, oil, salt, fresh fruit and veg, sanitary wear, masks and dog food and more. This allowed us to bulk up the packs even more, over and above the basic pack already provided.

Donations from companies also began to pour in. Some of these companies included: ‘Brilliant paper’ who assisted with packaging and toilet paper; ‘Environ’ who assisted us in collecting the 1000 boxes needed to pack the packs; and ‘Ninas’ who supplied dog food and packaging. We were set on having a green (‘eco-friendly’) operation, being surfers who love the environment, and therefore refused to use plastic for packaging our goods.

Thank you to everyone who rallied together and gave us as much as they possibly could.

The big pack started on Tuesday afternoon and the local NSRI, as well as volunteers from all over arrived to pack. By the end of the day the whole floor of the church was covered in boxes. The packing operation was massive and exhausting but so gratifying to see it all coming together. All those involved were provided with homemade material masks by some local mothers and all complied with strict hygiene requirements.

Thursday morning the exhausting work of finalizing, transportation and distribution of boxes began.

With the assistance of the Traffic Police, Smhart Security and a convoy of vehicles we headed off. While the boxes were unfortunately not enough to feed the entire community, areas of most need were identified by the Mayor of Jeffery’s Bay and were thus the focus of the drop-off. The municipality documented and marked each house that received a parcel in order to prevent duplications. Thank you to those delivering parcels who worked hard and often had to carry parcels long distances, as many houses could not be reached by cars.

The smiles of the faces of those who received parcels were amazing to see. Within a week the accomplishments we have made have been incredible - it shows what can be achieved when everyone works together.

The plan going forward:

This week ‘Pick n Pay’ have come on board - assisting with credit until the funds are released. Another 1000 packs will be delivered on Thursday the 30th of May to new highlighted areas of need.

Thank-you to all our donors, volunteers and to everyone who made this happen - it is just to difficult to name everyone. We wish to continue to work with you all in the upcoming weeks as the COVID-19 crisis continues

Please continue to share and support our cause, as we attempt to prevent hunger and starvation in our community.