Food Bank launched in Kavango East

WINDHOEK, 15 AUG  – Deputy Minister of Poverty Eradication and Social Welfare, Aino Kapewangolo, launched the Food Bank Programme in Kavango East on Sunday.
During the launch, Kapewangolo explained that the program will start with the training of street committee members who will then be responsible for the identification of beneficiaries and the eventual distribution of food items.
He said the idea of using street committees to assist with the Food Bank activities come from the President Hage Geingob and is a similar concept to the one used in Cuba to organise street committees to work in their localities.
“This is a reason why the President invited the first Cuban Ambassador to Namibia, Angel Dalmau, to assist with the Food Bank programme, especially when it comes to street committees,” he emphasised.
The first ever Food Bank Programme in Namibia was launched in Windhoek on 20 June 2016 by Geingob.
This was followed by the distribution of dry food items in seven constituencies of the Khomas Region as part of a pilot programme.
The programme benefited 15 519 households which represents 67 987 individuals in seven constituencies of Khomas.
He announced that key findings from an assessment conducted by the University of Namibia on the first Food Bank programme indicates that about 90 per cent of the beneficiaries were food insecure before the programme’s intervention.
He added that it also shows that after the introduction of the programme, 62 per cent of those that were food insecure are not food secure.
It further revealed that the food bank intervention has a significant impact on household food security and the scheme is effective in addressing hunger especially to beneficiaries with no formal employment, given the current socio-economic situation of the country.
Kapewangolo assured those in attendence that in terms of financial sustainability, the programme will be affordable within the current budgetary allocations for the next three years, taking into account a 10 per cent inflationary increase.
He further said that to date, the programme has been rolled-out to the Hardap and /Karas regions.
The programme is meant to address household food insecurity in mainly urban and peri-urban areas, where the people do not have enough land to produce their own food. – NAMPA