"Food security is a critical social issue," says Hennie Heymans, CEO of DHL Express in sub-Saharan Africa. "We are thrilled to be in a position to support some worthy charities during this time."

"At DHL, we have a very clear purpose of connecting people and improving lives and I can't think of a better project to help bring that purpose to life," adds Heymans.

Megan Collinicos, VP of marketing at DHL Express in sub-Saharan Africa, says, "Our goal is to reach as many people as possible. To meet this goal, we are working with a robust group of charities."

"Our teams in South Africa welcome the opportunity to get involved from a volunteer perspective for the duration of the campaign. Instead of merely sponsoring food preparation and deliveries, we are able to commit with our wonderful DHL Express employees," adds Collinicos.

"It's an integrated approach that relies on collaboration between our employees and our partners to make it a success," says Collinicos.

The Woodstock Brewery and Great Commission United partnered during lockdown to form Mother Soup, an initiative that focuses on supplying nutritious hot soup to hungry communities in the Cape Town metropolitan area. This forms part of a community-led initiative to help those hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"During the initial lockdown period, the brewery was not permitted to make or sell beer," says Andre Viljoen, Woodstock Brewery's owner. "We discovered a way to make nutritious vegetarian soup, inexpensively and in very large volumes using our brewery vessels."

"To get the brewery ready, we had to make some process flow modifications. We prepare the vegetables upstairs in the restaurant and drop them straight into the brewing tanks for cooking after shredding and using holes cut into one of the kitchen floors, directly above the brewing tanks," adds Viljoen.

"Mother Soup has managed to involve skilled chefs, a dietician and a food technologist in the project. With our large, efficient and safe brewing pots, optimised ingredient mix and sourcing practices, we are able to make generous donations of cash or ingredients go a long way," says Viljoen.

The Woodstock Brewery is utilised to cook up to 8 000 litres of nutritious soup daily, resulting in 24 000 nutritious meals. To date, Mother Soup has delivered more than 2.2 million meals.

"We are thankful for DHL's support and cherish the ability to form successful partnerships with businesses, communities and the city," says Viljoen.

"It enables us to plan and continue producing and delivering much-needed meals. Together, we can make our country a better place. Our original commitment was to continue producing and distributing soup until the end of 2020, but we would like to continue thereafter preferably at a premise that is better suited," Viljoen says.

"We are confident and motivated to assist DHL in reaching its '1 000 000 meals by December' target," concludes Viljoen.

For more information, visit www.mothersoup.co.za or www.dhl.com.