(Photo: Provided)
Earlier this month, Cape Forum facilitated the donation of 2,000 broilers from National Chicks and the feed for one cycle (from day one until the chick is slaughtered) from Meadow Feeds to Skurweberg Secondary School in Ceres.
This huge donation, made possible by Astral Foods, follows after the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) asked the civil rights organization to intervene.
Astral Foods, led by CEO Gary Arnold, is the largest poultry producer in Southern Africa. The company specializes in animal feed, broiler genetics, day-old chicks and chicken processing.
National Chicks, a division of Astral operations, is the supplier of high quality Ross 308 day old chicks and hatching eggs in South Africa and other African countries. Meadow Feeds is considered the market leader in the Southern African animal feed industry with the production of a variety of specialized formulas and feed mixes.
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- (Photo: Provided)
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- (Photo: Provided)
The aim of this initiative is to give the school an opportunity to establish a sustainable income.
The plan is that the school will raise the chicks and use the proceeds to purchase chicks and feed themselves in the future. In this way, the project can quickly become self-sustaining and ultimately profitable to the benefit of the school, its community and the taxpayer.
According to Cape Forum, the project has so far exceeded all expectations.
“Ten days after the donation of the chicks on March 3, no deaths have been recorded among the chicks. The first seven days are considered high risk. Dr Ivan Meyer, the Western Cape Minister of Agriculture, Economic Development and Tourism, described this project as brilliant.”
Arnold says Astral Foods recognizes its social and corporate responsibility in the agricultural sector in which it operates.
(Photo: Provided)
“It was a privilege for us to work together with the local government, the WCED and Cape Forum. Thanks to the involvement of Astral, National Chicks and Meadow Feeds, a school was supported with the implementation of a broiler project.”
He says this initiative aims to develop additional agricultural skills at the school, stimulate entrepreneurial thinking and enable schools to achieve greater financial independence over time.
“This in turn can contribute to the relief of pressure on the public treasury and therefore also on taxpayers,” says Arnold.
According to dr. Mariëtte Wheeler, the WCED’s curriculum planner for agricultural and marine sciences, the broiler project is more than just an agricultural learning opportunity: it is an investment in work, skills and growth.