The Tiger Brands Foundation (TBF) was established in 2011 to provide school breakfasts and cooking facilities in no-fee primary schools as a pilot for emulation. It is funded by a dividend flow arising from 5% share capital of Tiger Brands held by the Foundation. It now provides almost 84,000 breakfasts in 105 schools around South Africa. By the end of May 2021, the programme had served almost 96 million nutritious means to learners. The Foundation does mobile monitoring of the breakfasts, as well as for government’s school lunches, offering daily information on delivery. Unemployed youth are trained for this purpose. The TBF works very closely with the Department of Basic Education to influence norms in school feeding and monitoring.
Two area studies, in Alexandra (an urban township in Johannesburg) and in Lady Frere (a deep rural area in the Eastern Cape Province) have shown that this programme may be having significant impacts on child nutrition, stunting, obesity and learning outcomes.
I have been a trustee since the TBF’s founding in 2011, and was its chairperson from 2012 to April 2016. Through TBF, we want to demonstrate how a simple, low cost programme can move the dial toward a decent standard of life for low income households, improving concentration in school and reducing disease burden.
For more information, please see Tiger brands foundation website
