Media Release - Minister Patricia De Lille Releases Latest Community Nutrition and Development Centres Figures

A few days before the launch of Social Development Month 2010, the Department has released details on the work of the 369 Community Nutrition and Development Centres (CNDC's) in the Western Cape.

The CNDC's are one of the contributions of the Department of Social Development to Provincial Strategic Objective 9: Poverty Alleviation and Poverty Reduction. They represent a first line of defence against hunger owing to high levels of unemployment, economic recession and deprivation facing communities.

It is also our goal that they go some way towards achieving Millennium Development Goal 1 of halving poverty and hunger by 2015.

The general aim of the Centres is to provide cooked, nutritious meals to individuals and households that cannot feed themselves due to hunger and poverty, while also linking them to a wide range of development initiatives and available economic opportunities.

I can confirm that the CNDC's are located in all 5 district municipalities and the Cape Metro.

In rural towns, including farms, there are 217 CNDC's, while in the Metro there are 152.

Farms predominantly have distribution points (eg; in Beaufort West, George, Oudtshoorn, Vredenburg and Vredendal) due to permission that must be sought from farm owners before the CNDC's can be established.

I will be conducting site visits to these centres during Social Development Month to evaluate the impact of the CNDC Programme.

We will also regularly inform the media and the public on our valuable contribution to improving the lives of the poor and vulnerable in our province.