A first-of-its-kind school nutrition initiative in KwaZulu-Natal began with a former teacher preparing sandwiches in her kitchen for hungry pupils.
Almost two years later, Cristine Panday’s Pink Room Foundation – which has delivered 107 000 sandwiches to seven schools and five communities in Durban – will be operating from a multi-million Rand kitchen where a proven innovative meal and production model will provide a variety of nutritious meals to schoolchildren.
Vegetables and meat meals will be prepared, blast chilled, packed and frozen, ready for distribution to schools where it will be heated for lunch.
The R2.5-million Pink Kitchen, which can produce 5000 meals a day, has launched in Mount Edgecombe, north of Durban.
“I started with just 10 loaves of bread a day. When I saw the need growing, I approached my husband, Akash Panday, who is the MD of Skyworth Digital MEA and Group CEO of QVWI. He immediately got behind the initiative with Skyworth funding the foundation and the entire Pink Kitchen.”
“I wanted to provide a hot nutritious meal to the children. They couldn’t have sandwiches every day. I wanted them to have a variety of balanced meals. I realised I needed a kitchen and concept to enable me to do this.”
A timely introduction to the renowned Cipla Foundation then helped make Panday’s dream of building the Pink Kitchen a reality. The Cipla Foundation introduced Panday to Pebbles Project Kitchen’s concept, which has been successful in the Western Cape.
“We decided to duplicate the same concept in KwaZulu-Natal. Meals will be supplied as 1kg frozen packages. Meals can be prepared in advance and ready for distribution immediately when the need arises,” said Panday.
Skyworth has also pledged R5-million over five years to the foundation. The pledge has been endorsed by Skyworth’s global head office.
“I never expected what I started in my own kitchen to become this big. I started because I wanted to feed children. Having been a Montessori teacher, I know that a healthy body leads to a healthy mind, which leads to a happy child.”
“I have heard children ask for another sandwich to take home because there is no meal for supper. I have seen children save sandwiches to take home for parents or grandmothers, who have no food. I have met children who arrive at school without having supper the night before or breakfast in the morning. How could I ignore that there are hungry children sitting in those classrooms?”
The first meals produced from the foundation’s new kitchen will be delivered in the first week of the new school year on 22 January 2024.
“The Cipla Foundation has a vision for containers to be stationed at these schools with solar powered systems to heat these meals. Cipla will help us execute it. We have also acquired two more partners recently, which are IzingaAssist and Skyworth’s recently launched brand of consumer products, QVWI.”
“The Pink Kitchen is a place that provides hope and a brighter future for so many hungry children,” added Panday.
For more information, visit https://pink.org.za
