Shoprite Group Opens Doors For Community Gardeners At Shoprite & Checkers’ Market Day
Shoprite Group Opens Doors For Community Gardeners At Shoprite & Checkers’ Market Day. Emerging farmers from 40 community food gardens across the country sold their fresh and organically grown produce directly to the public as part of Shoprite and Checkers’ Market Day on Thursday, 12 October 2023.
Since its launch in 2017, Market Day is part of the retailer’s commitment to support and strengthen the local communities in which it trades and serves as an opportunity for small-scale food gardens to sell their produce at selected Shoprite and Checkers supermarkets.
As Africa’s largest retailer, the company believes in taking hands with local community organisations in the fight against hunger. Its vision is to enable communities to feed themselves in an independent and sustainable manner, which has resulted in the implementation of sustainable food gardens across the country. “By investing in and expanding long-term sustainable initiatives such as food gardens, community feeding schemes now have access to fresh and nutritional produce plus they are able to sell their excess crops in order to generate much-needed funds.” said Adele Lambrechts, Shoprite Group’s PR and Communications Manager.
“We’re always excited about participating in Market Day because Checkers’ footprint enables us to sell to a larger audience. Not only do we gain invaluable retail experience, but the response from the public is always fantastic and we’re able to supplement our income.” said Mpho Mutaung from the Carroll Shaw Memorial Centre in Randfontein.
The Shoprite Group is committed to ensuring food security in communities and supports more than 220 food gardens – covering more than 4.5 million m2 – and over 3 750 home gardens, indirectly impacting 61 064 beneficiaries. The retailer’s garden programme has provided 2 580 community members with training over the past year and has supplied more than 1 million meals since inception.
The Shoprite Group is the largest retailer in Africa, known for its iconic supermarket brands Shoprite, Checkers and Usave. Starting with just eight stores and 400 employees in 1979, the business is now the continent’s industry leader by market capitalisation, sales, profit and number of employees and customers. The Group’s core business is food retailing, complemented by value-added retail services and offering across a range of industries including technology, financial, pharmaceutical, furniture, telecommunication as well as ticketing businesses.
