An additional R53-million from the Provincial Treasury allocations has been made available by the Western Cape Department of Social Development (DSD) for food relief programmes.
Across the province, many families are hungry and have been asking for help but there are conditions a family or person must meet before they are eligible to receive food parcels.
Qualifying Criteria:
Households qualify for food relief parcels if they are affected by Covid-19 infections in the following instances:
– A member/s of the family who tested positive for the virus and are in quarantine in their homes.
– A household where a member of the family who tested positive for the virus and who have insufficient means to sustain themselves during the lockdown period.
– A person who is on medication or who suffers from a chronic illness and has insufficient means to sustain themselves and was assessed and referred by a local clinic or registered health practitioner.
– A person and their household with insufficient means to sustain themselves during the lockdown period who was referred by a registered humanitarian relief agency, registered NPO or a municipal manager, and assessed by DSD. In this instance, persons not yet in receipt of SASSA grants, including the elderly, child-headed households, and grant-awaiting beneficiaries will be prioritised.
What is the process for applying for food relief?
If you are in need of food relief because of the Covid-19 lockdown, there are 3 ways you can apply:
- If you are applying for one household you can complete the online food parcel form here. All required fields must be filled in to submit the form.
- If you are applying on behalf of a group of people, you will need to download the Excel application form in the first blue block below on this page, complete and send to [email protected]
- Call the Western Cape Government hotline or send a Please Call Me to 079 769 1207 and an agent will take your details telephonically. High call volumes are currently being experienced so delays should be expected.
Requests that are sent through from a call centre, municipal manager, humanitarian relief agency, or registered NPO are routed to DSD social workers.
This information is added to a central DSD database, followed by a telephonic assessment by one of the government social workers, and screening of the person’s ID against SASSA’s database to check whether the person is an existing grant or food recipient from SASSA.
Once a prospective beneficiary is confirmed as meeting the criteria, they are then contacted by the Department, and given details of when delivery will take place. This process is followed to ensure the most vulnerable can receive this limited resource.
According to the Western Cape Government, these steps and criteria are aimed at ensuring those in the most dire situations during the lockdown are prioritised.
Picture: Facebook/ Premier Alan Winde