MOSSEL BAY NEWS - An emergency food project by the Mossel Bay Municipality brought relief during the Easter weekend to more than 1 000 families in dire need of sustenance.
On Wednesday, 8 April, Mossel Bay Municipality's Executive Mayor, Alderman Harry Levendal, and the Executive Mayoral Committee approved the use of R500 000 from municipal funds to assist eligible applicants in dire need of urgent food aid due to the national Covid-19 lockdown.
The mayor also called on the Mossel Bay community for donations to ensure that still more recipients' food needs could be addressed.
The emergency food relief project was intended as a bridging initiative until the Department of Social Development, which was given the national mandate and ultimate responsibility for the distribution of food parcels, could put their planning and processes in place.
The municipal employees literally worked throughout the night to establish a computerised database and an online application facility backed by a call centre where applicants were assisted in all three of the Western Cape's official languages to apply for emergency food relief.
The aim was always to integrate the municipal database with that of department social services, therefore the same qualifying criteria as determined by the government were used to pre-authorise applications.
Database
The database also aimed to prevent probable "double-dipping" when other government relief projects would kick off.
Given the legislative environment of the local government and the legal requirements of the supply chain management process, a qualifying supplier had to be appointed.
Food parcels were made up according to a prescribed list of contents deemed sufficient to meet the basic needs of a family of five for one month.
The food parcels were properly packaged and thoroughly disinfected before delivery.
By Saturday morning, 11 April, on the Easter weekend, the first food parcels were delivered to beneficiaries. A triple audit process regulated deliveries; delivery staff took a photo of the beneficiary and the person's identity document; and an electronic geo-PIN was dropped at the delivery address, which directly linked back to the electronic database.
The delivery process ensured that the physical, social distancing of 1.5m was maintained throughout.
Eventually, Mossel Bay Municipality distributed 1 062 food parcels to needy families across the greater Mossel Bay area during the Easter weekend.
Food parcels
The contents of the food parcels are enough to provide sustenance for five people per household for a month.
Using the buying power of the municipality, the food parcels could be acquired for under R500 per parcel.
The municipal bridging project ended late on Monday, 13 April, after the Department of Social Services announced that the first of the food parcels it would distribute had been received in Mossel Bay.
Subsequently, the municipality's electronic database of prequalified beneficiaries has been made available to the department so that further unnecessary time spent can be prevented and it can continue to distribute emergency relief to pre-qualified beneficiaries quickly and effectively and without further delay.
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