NOORDGESIG Primary School was abuzz with excited children at the opening of the school’s nutrition kitchen, newly renovated thanks to the kindness of the Johannesburg Development Agency.
Learners and teachers couldn’t hide their joy when the brightly painted kitchen with its sparkling pots and pans was opened for business on 27 March. According to Alice Moloto, the agency’s corporate social investment manager, the JDA committed a small grant to get the roof and ceiling fixed and painted, and to also install kitchen wall tiles as part of the agency’s CSI programme.
Earlier in the day, JDA staff took a bus to the school, which is in Soweto. It was built in 1953 and has 38 classrooms, 45 teachers and 1 520 learners.
Before the official opening of the nutrition kitchen, the school welcomed the JDA staff members on the assembly grounds, where the learners sang and prayed. The deputy principal, Malisela Austin Ledwaba, said he was very grateful for the JDA’s help.
“We are very happy to see the nutrition kitchen being renovated. It looks so beautiful,” he said. Ledwaba thanked the JDA for a job well done, as well as GTL Food Manufacturers and Distributors, which had been supplying food for the school’s feeding scheme.
“On behalf of the Noordgesig Primary School and Noordgesig community, we thank GTL for their support in supplying the school with food since the introduction of the nutrition feeding scheme. The feeding scheme is a district’s call to give food to needy learners.”
After the speeches, the JDA staff went to the kitchen to add the finishing touches. On behalf of the agency, Moloto said: “This is our corporate social investment project. Our mandate is to support and to give back to the surrounding communities where we do our projects. We just completed a Rea Vaya route in Noordgesig.
“This is our long-term vision because the JDA believes in a successful nation, and that can be achieved by looking after children through education,” she added.