FOOD BANK EAST AFRICA

My name is Mumbere Robert, Founder and Executive director of Food bank East Africa.

Food Bank East Africa (FBE) is a community based development organization under Burangwa Eyisuka Ningabu in Uganda which assist both rural and urban people living in the suburbs struggling to feed their families and meet the basic needs like soap, sanitizers, clothes, medicines etc. Initially Food bank East Africa  primarily focused on food aid and other basic need materials donations, but with time we begun to implement agricultural development projects.

Food bank East Africa share God’s love by walking with communities and families to overcome the Covid-19 pandemic and other health related problems, poverty and famine, to improve the quality of life of the vulnerable groups  such as women and girls,the elderly, the disabled people, street children among others and to help people build a healthy relationship with God and one another

Ministry of agriculture in Uganda, reports a declining  proportion of the food secure population over the years from 83% in July 2016 to about 58% in January 2019.  An estimated 11 million people are experiencing acute food insecurity of which 1.6 million people which translates to about 0.5% are in a crisis situation (MAAIF2017). Those in a crisis are found in Central (0.58) million, Karamoja (0.12) million, Teso(0.2)million, East central(0.38) million people and south western (0.31)million people. All regions in the country have a combined food insecurity stressed population of about 9.3 million (26%)

However some individuals, NGOs, companies,gov't and religious groups have  resources to help feed those who eat one meal or not eat a meal in a day, thus these people needed to be mobilized by putting up a food bank system which is used to collect and channel the collected food and other  resources  to the needy

According to (MAAIF) of Uganda, the proportion of the food secure population has been declining over the years from 83% in July 2016 to about 58% in January 2019. An estimated 11 million people are experiencing acute food insecurity of which 1.6 million people which translates to about 0.5% are in a crisis situation (MAAIF2017). Those in a crisis are found in Central (0.58) million people, Karamoja (0.12) million, Teso(0.2)million, East central(0.38) million and south western (0.31)million people. All regions in the country have a combined food insecurity stressed population of about 9.3 million (26%). The worsening food insecurity is always attributed to the effects of the bad weather such as Lanina which hit Uganda in 2016, landslides in some parts, hailstorms and poor rainfall patterns and distributions, resulting into reduced crop and livestock production.  Also excessive selling of food by the farmers to buy other basic needs which they don’t produce locally like paraffin, salt, medical services plus school fees for their children resulting into reduced household stocks and high food prices. Re-insurgence of crop pests and diseases such as the fall army worm for cereals and banana bacterial wilt for plantains also contribute to low food production

Though food may be available in some parts, food access and utilization are the major limiting factors. This has been attributed to low level of incomes,

Each year millions of tans of food and groceries are lost through waste, much of the food grown, processed/ produced and manufactured is never consumed due to expiration, overproduction, damage and market. A constant increase in food price crisis, the result of decades of insufficient involvement in agriculture and food security which have swelled the ranks of the poor and undernourished  people across East Africa, manifested by price hikes, driven by low income and population growth, migration, urbanization,country lock down due to Covid- 19 virus, pre, post harvest losses, storage, inadequate nutritional awareness, cultural food preferences, poor sanitary and food preparation practices and wastage of food during harvest periods due to festivities

Our food bank system volunteers move to supermarkets and groceries, Hotels,Individual homes,churches,markets,mosques and Restaurants in Kampala and other municipalities to collect resources and food items whose expiry dates are soon and may not have been bought before expiry dates(say 1- 3 months to expiry date) at low prices and distribute them to those in need at very low prices or for frees. 

Food bank East Africa  operates with  special cards which are distributed to hundreds of food insecure Ugandans staying in the suburbs and slums of Kampala and other towns however emphasis is given to vulnerable groups such as the elderly, pregnant and breast feeding women, the disabled and street children regardless of their social status, religion, tribe and political affiliations. The  card awards the owners the privilege of having free, affordable, subsidized, healthy food  and other basics like soaps and detergents,sanitizers, medicines, clothes and shoes etc

Cards can be funded by local and international donors. Card owners access food from specially trained food managers across all the small food banks in the different parts of the country.

Card owners activates their food cards, eat affordable, free, subsidized and very healthy food and also have access to credit food facility, when their cards are low on food donations. Food will be made accessible through trained food managers, across all the food pantries or small food banks in the various districts and regions in Uganda.

Our food bank is not just about simply providing solution to East Africa’s food insecurity problem, but rather it’s also about harnessing the great ideas and talents, by engaging the youths and skilled able bodied generation, and tapping into their innovative ideas, towards nation building and development, there is hope for a drastic cost reduction and thereby driving expansion that will result to employment, growth in new areas and increase production.This we hope aligns with the Elevate prize 2nd dimension, Elevating issues and their projects by building awareness and driving action to solve the most difficult problems of our world

I was raised in from the village district Kasese. At home we sometimes stayed on empty stomachs, only have supper or have lunch and no supper that day, sometimes we would go to work in peoples' gardens for just to have a days meal,where we would be given some fresh foods after weeding plantations of bananas, cassava and beans, this sometimes made us miss going to school. When government introduced free primary and later secondary education, my parents decided to move me to one of the nearby towns to attend, somehow better schools. While in my small rented mud house in town i sow many of my neighbors sleeping or staying hungry which often happened to me too, as i went for university i sow more people at university, in town facing the same problems, while at University as an Agriculture student i was tought Post harvest handling as one of my course units, where we realized that much food in Uganda is lost through poor post harvest handling, yet most people still stay or sleep hungry, so i decided to do something to reduce these losses but also create opportunities to feed the hungry with the rescued food.

I feel that Uganda's hungry population problem can be averted with the available resources including food resources,land resources, health resources and financial or economic resources as long as they are handled in a sustainable and well managed manner, this i tried and we have been able to rescue millions of kilograms of food, which was other wise ending up in rabish pits and waste pits to make organic matter yet some people in the neighborhoods were sleeping hungry,so we have also tried to teach the masses on having a giving hand and also to be mindful of other human beings who may not afford,but also not to waste resources because most of the wasted resources are non renewable, but also tought those who are in need to work hard to move them selves from the most vulnerable groups in societies where they live.

I am a University graduate holding a bachelors degree in Agriculture with Education,i am also finalizing a masters in crop science from Makerere University here in Uganda,i have some wide experience in the food chain and food industry plus nutrition in Uganda, given that i am also a product of the poor food condition since childhood until of late, i feel that the food bank will continue to prosper and move from one level to an other and expand from one part and region to an other with in Uganda and beyond our borders. As a teacher  have a component of administration which enables to handle the volunteers and workers in a very good way but with out giving chance to compromise, i also have the skills of handling the different vulnerable groups since i study psychology and growth and development of individuals in order to be considerate of different individual characteristics.

Some vulnerable members who come to the food bank have even no where to sleep some times, they sleep in cal-vats of roads, some homes are dilapidated and risky for human settlements, how ever in partnership with other organizations like churches we send volunteers to some of those cases to help in home cores like starting from house reconstruction, to compound cleaning and food cooking, some of the members have been  and we continue  to attach others to rescue homes for the elderly and children homes though these facilities are very few in Uganda thus we are in preparations of setting and registering some children and elderly homes where to manage the extreme cases who attend to our food bank services but with such grave challenges which are beyond just food and basics only.

Understanding the nutritional value of food selections and the benefits of meal planning is important for individuals and families. As a result, the Food bank East Africa  provides nutrition counseling once each month, as well as an assortment of recipes that can be made using ingredients obtained from the food bank.

I belong to an other community led group called Burangwa Eyisuka NIngabu development organization, this is a self help group just like my food bank, so through this group while i was its chair person in the year 2014 to 2016, i and other members on my committee we mobilized the community to contribute some little money as little  as each  family would manage for construction and connection of piped water to the sub county to solve the water problem, mobilized the youths who had trained  in the field of plumbing to give back to the community by constructing and providing clean water to the communities in the sub county where they are born, we managed to connect about 300 homes with clean piped water though we had no testing kits, reserve tanks and purification materials like chlorine to always add in water before it can be supplied to the communities, how ever under my leadership we were able to deliver water to the community with out any dona or government support, apart from a simple micro loan which we borrowed from the micro finance scheme, which we later paid fro the collections from the community members.

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