College of Agriculture & Environmental Sciences
Safe meals for future generations
Unisa staff from DCS with some of the volunteer food handlers
The Department of Life and Consumer Sciences (DLCS) in Unisa’s College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences (CAES) conducted a workshop recently to volunteer food handlers (VFH), who are responsible for preparing and serving meals to school learners nationwide.
VFH is a project under the National School Programme, which is the flagship of the South African Government in the Department of Education (Food and Safety Directorate).
This directorate has been mandated with providing nutritious meals to learners on school days. It has been working extensively with the Consumer Science Division (CSD) in DLCS to develop a programme for VFH.
The National School Programme identified and targeted VFH who are under the age of 35 and have matric. The 60 pilot volunteers who are participating in this programme are specifically targeted for nutrition and food safety in schools. All volunteers are unemployed parents of learners at the schools where their children attend and are appointed by the school governing bodies to volunteer for 12 months.
Fhumulani Ramasunga (Master’s student in Consumer Science), Dr Florence Malongane (Lecturer: DCS), Nomadlozi Ntshingila (School Nutrition, Gauteng Department of Education), and facilitator Dr Tersia Van Eeden (Lecturer: DCS)
The workshops will assist in safe food preparation areas and equip VFH with the necessary knowledge to prepare safe and nutritious food within the programme. At the end of the project, they will be competent and knowledgeable about hygiene, safe food handling practices, and basic nutrition. This opportunity will also assist them in trying to obtain employment after the volunteering period expires and empower them with the necessary knowledge to prepare safe and nutritious food with future endeavours.
The programme will benefit the learners to be served with nutritious meals that are safe to consume and promote healthier lifestyle at a young stage.
*By Gugulethu Ngcobo
Publish date: 2018-10-31 00:00:00.0
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