East London, Eastern Cape – The Eastern Cape Department of Health, Grow Great, and a coalition of partners launched a landmark provincial partnership to change the story of child nutrition in the province. The ambition is clear and shared: that the Eastern Cape stops being named in headlines about children dying of hunger and becomes a province where no child dies of hunger and childhood stunting ends.
The launch, held on 27 May, comes during Food Justice Week (25 to 30 May 2026) and on the eve of World Hunger Day, 28 May. It is a deliberate moment. As the world turns its attention to hunger and food justice, the Eastern Cape is choosing not to be a symbol of the problem, but a leader in the solution.
The partnership directly answers the Presidential declaration to end child stunting in South Africa, with a sharp focus on the first 1 000 days of life, the time from conception to a child’s second birthday. This is the window in which stunting is set, and it is the window in which it can be prevented.
Grow Great is now active in eight provinces. With today’s launch, the Eastern Cape steps into a national movement determined to end stunting by 2030.
Today most community health workers in the province don’t know how to detects a child who is malnourished before it too late. Through this partnership, community health workers will be trained and equipped to:
- Weigh children, measure their height and mid-upper arm circumference, and plot growth curves to identify slowed or poor growth months before a child becomes severely malnourished;
- Counsel mothers using the Road to Health booklet, so babies receive all their vaccines, vitamin A supplements and deworming tablets on time;
- Counsel on exclusive breastfeeding and complementary feeding through the first two years;
- Screen for maternal depression and alcohol use, the quiet drivers of poor child growth inside the home;
- Offer home pregnancy testing and encourage pregnant women in the community to book their pregnancies before 20 weeks;
- Link pregnant women and children to clinics, social protection services, parental support classes and nutritious food parcels.
“We are equipping our community health workers into frontline clinicians of the first 1 000 days, we have already trained and equipped over 400 of them in the province,” said Dr Mphaphuli.
In addition, trained Grow Great Flourish Hosts will run free antenatal and postnatal classes in communities across the province, supporting pregnant women and new mothers through the critical early months.
The partnership will pilot an exciting innovation in the fight against child malnutrition: food parcels prescribed by selected clinics for pregnant women and children under two who meet defined nutritional criteria, delivered in partnership with Food Forward SA.
Crucially, food will be prescribed both for children already showing signs of malnutrition, so we treat early, and for those at risk of becoming malnourished, so we prevent it in the first place. Prevention is the goal.
The launch also unveiled the Eastern Cape Stunting Scorecard, a district-level tool giving provincial leadership a real-time view of where children are most at risk and where the system is working. The Scorecard will anchor accountability and support data-driven decisions at every level.
“The ambition is clear: within the decade, the Eastern Cape will no longer be in the news as the province where children are dying of hunger, but as a province that, together with Grow Great and its partners, found a way to ensure no child dies of hunger and stunting ends.” Said X, Chief of staff at the office of the MEC health in her closing address
ENDS/
About Grow Great
Grow Great is a national campaign focused on ending child stunting in South Africa by 2030. The initiative works to improve maternal and child nutrition, health and development during the First 1 000 Days of life through evidence-based interventions and partnerships across government and civil society.
Media Enquiries
Grow Great – dudu@growgreat.co.za
Tel – 083 692 4198
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