With the Easter Holidays come and gone, the first quarter of the year has been busy as far as trading at the JBay Recycling project goes. So far this year the children have brought in 20 tonnes of recyclables to trade for goods in the “swop shop”! This brings up our grand total to 570 tonnes of which 240 tonnes have been plastic.
In 2017, we implemented a reward of fruit (donated by Food Lover’s Market) to those children who bring their own shopping bags. We are glad to report that lots of our customers as young as 4 or 5 years have now cultivated that habit (so no excuses for us adults!).
Fresh produce from the Jeffreys Bay Comprehensive School garden, sponsored by Vlakteplaas, continues to be extremely popular. Pauline is now kindly making up R5/ 1 Mula bunches of spinach, since the R10 bunches were in many cases bigger than the kids! If you live in Jeffreys Bay, we encourage you to take advantage of this resource – open weekday mornings opposite 55 Koraal Street
Loads of kids use 2 of their Mula to buy a bag of dog food, supplied at below cost by J.Bay Animal Rescue Sanctuary’s Vivienne.
500 knitted squares, 20 whole blankets plus lots of beanies and hand warmers are flying in from all over the world, lovingly made by the group of knitters and crocheters who donate their time to keep our children warm in the upcoming colder weather. The hand warmers are particularly sought after.
As always we need to thank our regular volunteers without whom the project would not be able to operate, and welcome all new volunteers with open arms. The Jeffreys Bay Primary School sends a group of children called the Caring Kids Club every Monday to volunteer, the interaction between the project children and the Caring kids Club is very special. We also had a group from Pharos School visit us – this group of 18 learners spent 2 hours helping us get the swop shop ready for the afternoon by repacking sugar, weetbix, hair bands and marbles. They have promised to return soon!
We have regular visitors from Ubuntu Backpackers as well as Island Vibe Backpackers. These mostly overseas visitors are invaluable as they become ambassadors for the Project during their travels. With winter coming up, we are always looking for donations of warm children’s clothing. Please contact Tanja on 084 684 6771 to arrange where you can drop off.