By Philile Thusi
Hot meals and drinks early in the morning while waiting in the queue for pensioners grant payouts go a long way for the Soweto elderly who are beneficiaries of the generous Pensioners Feeding Group (PFG).
The non-profit organisation, popularly known as PFG, extends its hands to many pensioners who arrive to collect their money and need nourishment while waiting their turn. PFG founder and spokesperson, Lerato Thusi, said that the idea came to her around June 2021.
“I realised that our grannies spend a long time waiting for their pension money outside post offices and other paypoints. I wanted to help, but I didn’t know how,” Thusi said.
In time, she came up with the idea to prepare meals for them after witnessing scenes where some would collapse while waiting to get their pension. She told a few of her friends, and they all bought into the idea.
In August 2021, before starting with the meals, she spent some time with a few of the elderly people while in the queues and talked to them about their needs.
“Some of them told me that they wait from 05:00 without having anything to eat, and some return home without having received help. I went to the post office in Orlando East and asked how many people they usually see monthly.”
“The worker that I asked told me that they see 300 – 400 people monthly, and that there are around 4000 of them that collect their pension money around Soweto,” she explained.
When Lerato and her PFG team started in 2021, they served about 437 pensioners. She shared with Credible Source that the number of pensioners they serve each month has increased to just over 2100.
“Funding started from the same group of friends that I shared this idea with when we started. Two months into serving, the manager from my workplace, JUST Retirement Company, offered to help. We wanted to be assisted with serving more areas. We moved from serving two areas to serving four areas,” Thusi said.
PFG staff member and cook, Nokulunga Thusi, says that their menu is usually rice, cabbage, sweet and sour, beetroot, and chicken. In winter, they serve soup.
“To accommodate special dietary needs like diabetes and hypertension, we don’t use a lot of salt and spices,” Thusi said.
PFG’s volunteer, Lesego Makhupula, says the most difficult part of volunteering is the number of hours it takes to prepare. Sometimes some volunteers are not as effective as they should be, which affects productivity.
“Nonetheless, it feels so good to help those in need,” Makhupula said.
One of the beneficiaries of the PFG scheme, Rachel Ngcongo (68), says that the organisation has changed her life. As a diabetic person, when she goes for a long time without eating, her body feels weak, and PFG has intervened generously.
“May God bless the people who volunteer and donate to PFG,” Ngcongo said.
PFG spokesperson Lerato added that it makes them happy to know that one meal goes a long way in making an impact in their community.
