ABOUT 400 food insecure households in Mangwe district, Matabeleland South province, on Thursday benefitted from the United States Agency for International Development (USAid)-funded food aid as hunger ravages communities across the country.
The food was distributed by the World Food Programme (WFP) under the last batch of the January to March 2024 lean season which targeted to feed some 2,7 million people.
WFP is working in collaboration with the government-led Food Deficit Mitigation Strategy Programme to provide critical food assistance to the most vulnerable populations.
Speaking to journalists during the food distribution programme at Madabe village, WFP Zimbabwe country director Francesca Erdelmann said they are working with partners such as World Vision to provide food aid to affected communities.
“This (food) distribution is the last one to take place in this area, it marks the end of the lean season as the stocks have depleted at the WFP,” Erdelmann said.
USAid mission director Janean Davis said 230 000 households have benefitted from monthly food donations in four districts.
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“It’s evident that Matabeleland South is one of the provinces that has been most affected by the dry spell. In January, I visited the WFP warehouse in Harare where USAid committed to assist 230 000 people with a monthly food basket in Mangwe district along with three other districts, Mwenezi, Chivi and Buhera,” Davis said.
“From January-March the peak of the lean season each of the 230 000 Zimbabweans across the four districts have been receiving monthly in kind food commodities of cereal, pulses and vegetable oil. We are proud of WFP and their partners including World Vision.”
Davis said the US government, through USAid, has worked together with both local and international non-governmental organisations since 2000 to improve food security and respond to the emergency food crisis for millions of Zimbabweans.
Addressing beneficiaries of the food programme, Matabeleland South Provincial Affairs and Devolution minister Evelyn Ndlovu lamented the poor rains that characterised the area resulting in food insecurity.
“The food distribution here is because we did not have rains and last year some of you did not harvest anything from the fields. When we made an assessment last year we found out that some of you did not harvest. This food we are distributing we asked the WFP to assist us so that it deals with some of the districts,” she said.