Feeding our school-kids
This article has been provided by Talitha from Innocomm.
A Partnership That Nourishes Children and Builds Futures
When children arrive at school hungry, learning becomes an uphill battle for them. It need not be like that.
Across South Africa, malnutrition and stunting continue to rob young learners of opportunity, leaving devastating long-term cognitive gaps that are almost impossible to bridge.
It’s for these reasons that The Love Trust and Soul Food, two faith-based non-profit organisations, have committed to working together to ensure that children not only have access to quality education but also the nutrition needed to thrive.
This long-standing partnership, which began in 2019, has been renewed with greater vigour following Mandela Day 2025, when Soul Food pledged to support The Love Trust’s Nokuphila School in Thembisa with breakfast meals indefinitely.
It is a commitment that recognises the equal importance of food and education in breaking the cycle of poverty.
Feeding body and mind
Soul Food provides between 1.5 and 1.7 million meals nationally on a monthly basis, feeding over 70,000 children daily through more than 1,000 centres.
“We have always believed that proper nutrition is a human right,” says Thabo Maluleke, Chief Operating Officer at Soul Food. “It is shocking that 1.7 million children in South Africa, about 27%, are already stunted.
Many of them were never given a fair chance at proper nutrition. By narrowing our focus to children between 0 and 10 years old, we are targeting the crucial window where we can make the biggest difference.”
Their flagship breakfast, the POWA Pack, is a sorghum-based porridge rich in protein, energy and balanced nutrients, designed specifically to combat malnutrition.
A 1kg bag provides 25 meals and can be prepared as porridge or a shake. For lunch, the POWA Loda, a soy-based product with rice and spices, offers variety and warmth.
These scientifically developed solutions are the product of extensive research and development through collaborations with leading manufacturers and academic partners.
Maluleke explains: “Our partnership with The Love Trust is a no-brainer. They are giving children the gift of education, and we ensure that they are nourished enough to learn. Together, we can go over and above a bowl of food and offer children a real future.”
In addition to their signature power meals, Soul Food rescues surplus consumable food nearing expiration from farms and retailer partners such as Woolworths and Checkers. By training their food pickers to ensure it can be safely redistributed, they help prevent millions of kilograms of food from being wasted.
Strategic alignment with The Love Trust For The Love Trust, who run the Nokuphila School in Thembisa, as well as an extensive teacher training programme, their partnership with Soul Food means more than just meals.
By guaranteeing their learners are properly nourished, Soul Food enables The Love Trust to redirect its resources into other critical areas, such as STEM learning tools and ensuring their learners are safely transported to and from school. It is a collaboration that amplifies both organisations’ impact.
Research, innovation and the road ahead
Beyond their current products, Soul Food is investing in innovation. The forthcoming POWA Baby meal, still in research and development, is designed for infants from six months to two years old to bridge nutritional gaps from the earliest stages of life. Other projects include NUTRI TRACK, which will monitor children’s health and nutrition in real-time.
As the collaboration between Soul Food and The Love Trust strengthens, the hope is clear: a generation of young South Africans whose hunger to learn is being fuelled by these organisations, equipping them for a brighter tomorrow.
Maluleke puts it simply: “If we can keep a child in school, learning with energy and dignity, then we have done more than feed them; we have invested in South Africa’s future.”
