An a-maize-ing morning

Lead SA Hero of the year, 13-year-old Jordan van der Walt, brought a smile to many a face on 18 September when he and Joint Aid Management South Africa (JAM SA), based in Honeydew, delivered multiple bags of maize to underprivileged families in the north of Johannesburg.

Van der Walt started an initiative to collect maize meal at his primary school after seeing a moving documentary last year about three million school children in South Africa that go to school hungry every day. In April last year, instead of collecting Easter eggs for charity, he asked if each school child could rather contribute a bag of maize, which was distributed to impoverished settlements in his community. Lead SA recognised his efforts and named the mere 13-year-old Gauteng Lead SA Hero of the year in December last year.

The JAM SA team, van der Walt and senior retail operations manager at Spar South Road Greg Segel, spent the morning delivering 560 bags of maize to different centres in Johannesburg North, including Badisa Day Care, Sisonke Day Care and Itsoseng Day Care, among others.

For van der Walt, the best part of the morning was interacting with the children. “It was amazing to see how happy these children are even though they live in such poverty,” he said.