The 6 rand a day Food Challenge in South Africa

SA's unemployment rate and the high cost of food mean many people go hungry. We look at how the R6 food challenge can raise awareness around this.

We took the inspiration for this number from a family of four – twin sisters, each with a child – who live outside Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape. They do odd jobs. And when they have work, they buy four potatoes and a cup of rice with the R6 that they have. This covers their day’s food.

R6 challenge: What to do
I am part of a “family unit”, where four of us have pooled our R6 to get rice and a few bits to add to it. This gives us a bit more purchasing power. The shopping was done in Johannesburg’s city centre where you can buy single items of food at cheaper prices than supermarkets.

My other colleagues might try to buy single units of items. A banana on the street near the M&G’s offices is R2. This seems like an impossibly expensive option.

To get rice or other staples, we figure people can take from their larder on these items.

There is also the option of not eating, since Oxfam’s research this week says 17% of South Africans are forced to skip food for a day or more to make the month.

We’re hoping that the #6Rand day is run on a trust system. Sure, anyone can stuff their faces before work and come in, pretending to have some solidarity, but if there is cheating, that is a conscious choice.

Water is a yes. According to the water department, a third of South Africans do not have water flowing from their taps. They have to buy water from an already constricted budget. But in Johannesburg most people have clean water, so water is free.

Coffee and tea is a no. This is pretty hard at the M&G because Thursday is its newspaper deadline day and many of my colleagues rely on caffeine. But that is a luxury and this exercise is about having a tiny feel of what life is like for one in four South Africans.

Cigarettes. We have not said no. But that is up for people to decide on their own. This is no dictatorship, however it is a luxury.

Ok so this is from Mail and Guardian in SA.
I Think is a great concept to raise awareness in a country with such large earning variants.
I am not sure I will make a whole month without booze or coffee but I am gonna give it a go.

Is there no way SA Horse racing could get involved???

I'll give it a go...

I don't smoke or consume alcohol and it's been about 15 years since I last had tea or coffee...

R6 / day...going to have to spend lots of time of careful buying at the market in Tongaat on a Saturday to cater for the week ahead but worth the effort for a(nother) dose of reality...

To quote from the article........." We took the inspiration for this number from a family of 4 - twin sisters, each with a child. "

Well, for starters, they have children who we assume donot have fathers who provide any support.

The majority of these "single" women with children qualify for a State Child Support Grant, could be something like R 150-- per month, which is not a princely sum at all, but ensures some form of relief.

However, it is this Child Support that encourages many of the young girls to have children to receive some form of income, the one child invariably increases to two for a further Child Support Grant etc.

What the future holds for the kids..............anybody's guess?? :huh:

The Lords in the UK feel the poor should be able to live on less than the minimum wage

Bob Brogan wrote: The Lords in the UK feel the poor should be able to live on less than the minimum wage

They have no idea of the real world as most of them were born with a silver spoon in their mouth and what makes it more intolerable is that most of them are Labour put in their by the wonderful Teflon Tony

Bob Brogan wrote: The Lords in the UK feel the poor should be able to live on less than the minimum wage

minimum wage and the onerous labour legislation in this country is part of the problem.

Madji your statement is ridiculous and you are being ungrateful

Child Support Grant now R310--per child and pays for up to 6 children until age 18 yrs is reached.

.................. www.services.gov.za/services/content/Hom...portgrant/en_ZA#Cost

What is weird is that in Swaziland they have the exact opposite. they pay the young girls not to have children but rather go to school.

I believe this child grant just generates another round of poverty for the next generation in these poor communities.

But as always there are multiple sides to this challenge so that is my very basic view.