1st Rivertrail Scouter Kim Abraham with Jordan and Conner Matthee.
Since the beginning of the Covid-19 lockdown many Scouting members have stepped up to help community members in need. Their projects have included doing grocery shopping and deliveries for the elderly, making masks, building local sanitising stations or by providing food parcels to needy families. For this year’s Mandela Day, SCOUTS South Africa, the national organization which promotes Scouting, challenged its members to fill ‘Jars of Hope’ in order to give hungry families a warm meal.
The local Sandton District responded to this challenge, and the children in the various branches, including Meerkats (ages 5 – 6 years), Cubs (ages 7 – 10 years) and Scouts (ages 11 – 18 years) from each of the different Scout Groups, collected some 1595 jars over two weeks. A ‘Jar of Hope’ is simply a reusable glass jar or container, filled with dry rice, soup mix, lentils, soup powder and a stock cube. One jar feeds four people or provides multiple meals to a single person. All that is required is to add water and cook.
Cub Londi Mfusi and family dropping jars at the 1st Bryanston Scout Hall.
Robin Ellis, a representative for the Sandton District, was thrilled with the response. “The number of jars collected is still being finalized by the Groups, with more donations still coming in. It will be interesting to see how many we finally contribute to the overall national total”, he said. A big thank you to the 1st Rivertrail Group which collected over 850 jars, and to the Bryanston, Fourways, Midrand and Peter Place Scout Groups who also supported the initiative.
Cub Matthew Hershensohn handing his jars to Scouter Marisa Rakic, 1st Bryanston Scout Group.
The jars were donated to local charities and feeding schemes to help those families most impacted by the current lockdown. Some of the beneficiaries included the Johannesburg Inner City Can Collective, Community Angels and feeding schemes in the Msawawa and Kya Sands informal settlements.
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