Ntokozo Zondo

On the evening of 19 August, residence students received a message on WhatsApp groups from their chairs and prims alerting them of the cancellation of the TuksRes Meal Bank programme. TuksRes Management released a written statement entitled “Meal Bank Termination” at midday on 20 August, elaborating on the message received by students the previous evening. The document states the reason for cancelling the meal bank programme at this time, “after two weeks of testing this model and listening to the Residence Sub-Council suggestions, this model will be paused and moulded into an improved version”. The document hints at the meal bank programme being reintroduced to students after working out the issues with the initial tested model. The statement explains that TuksRes “…trust that the model will be beneficial to our students in the near future.”

The problem of students running out of funds or not having a guaranteed meal per day still exists with the removal of the programme. Students who rely on TuksRes food services for all their meals will have to rely solely on the R240 from Fundi for both groceries and toiletries per month, as many families are unable to contribute to a monthly allowance or their bursaries does not provide them with a food allowance.