Food for Thought

For us as Canadians living in South Africa the cost of living seems to be much less than at home. We can buy 2L milk for less than $2, bottomless coffee for just over $1, 1L Ceres mango juice is .85 cents, 1 papaya is $1.45, 1 lb of ground beef is $1.60, 1 pig’s ear (pastry that is) is .46. We went out for coffee this week for less than $5 which included 2 cappuccinos and 2 pastries. This could become a daily habit if we don’t discipline ourselves! The dollar has increased in value from 7.5R/US$ when we arrived in September to over 10R/US$ currently. So we can buy more for the dollar than when we came.

However for South Africans, the cost of food and fuel has been going up for the last several years. From September last year to September this year the cost of fats and oils has gone up by 51%, and grain products have gone up 36.5%. This has made life even more difficult for many South Africans who live in poverty.

Yesterday I bought milk and bread at a small shopping centre across the street from our townhouse. In the parking lot I met three men who asked me for food. As I waited to cross the street (pedestrians do not have the right of way) another man asked me for food and sitting on the fence in front of our housing units as they do every day, three more men asked me for bread. That’s seven people in five minutes requesting assistance.

I didn’t even think about how much my groceries cost and these men may not have money to buy even a loaf of bread. How do I share what I have with my poor neighbours? Can I trust strangers? When will there be enough food for everyone?

To find out how MCC is responding to the global food crisis, check out this website: http://mcc.org/foodforall/