Good food news for all as dietitian reaches out
HAS BIG PLANS: Rocklands resident Jade Russouw, 24
A young Mitchells Plain dietitian says she wants to educate mense about healthy eating habits, especially over the festive season when most of us indulge in luxuries.
Jade Russouw, 24, explains that in her experience, mense from the Cape Flats are not really educated about healthy eating, and this sparked an idea to use her knowledge.
“Coming from a coloured household, ons eet deurmekaar,” she says.
“The idea came to me during my third year of studies when I made some changes to my own lifestyle and diet.”
“Educational empowerment is very important and not everyone has that," Russouw adds.
According to the Rocklands resident, her journey has also led her to start her own business in 2020, which is called Fuelgood.
With this, she has now launched an initiative, the “Fill-A-Bag” food parcel project, where she will provide nutritionally balanced food parcels to those in need in her community during the festive season.
“Hunger is considered a severe level of food insecurity and with poverty being more prevalent than before, we can see that these two are deeply related,” Russouw adds.
“Therefore, I have come up with this initiative and as a qualified dietitian, I believe that hunger is not an issue of charity.
“I don’t only want to provide them with food parcels but also with educational tools that will teach them how to have more nutritious foods and enrich them when there is little to nothing to eat,” she explains.
Russouw says the parcels will consist of non-perishables and easy to prepare nutritional content.
“One parcel can feed a family of four. People that will receive the parcels are child-headed households, unemployed and single parents, individuals who need to take prescribed medication and grandparents fostering for grandkids.”
Her goal is to distribute and educate at least 100 families by the end of January. “I would like to give to those in need and with my community we can make a difference,” she adds.