Within the grocery trolley of a rich person one will find products of a very expensive nature. Products that are from a food brand, whereas in a poor person’s grocery basket one will find the standard products, standard foods that one would have just to get through the week. The products could be cheap and not from a specific food brand. It could maybe be a part of the grocery store’s no-name brand.
The challenges identified within poorer communities could be that they can’t afford a healthier lifestyle, as healthier low GI food could be seen as more expensive. They can only afford standard things in their refrigerators and their food cupboards. Media plays a major role in how we see food as well and how we should eat.
Burger special from Café Mojito in Long street.
Social media has played a role in the facade of making people believe that having a lavish meal is what makes one part of the rich. A heavily filtered picture of a very healthy looking salad seems a lot more appealing to the eye than a picture of “pap” or “aknee” which may not be very appealing to everyone’s eyes. Proof of this could be found on anyone’s social media feeds.
Here’s a picture of a very simple Sunday lunch which was prepared for a coloured family on the Cape Flats. To most other families on the Cape Flats a meal like this could be lacking a lot. As Sunday’s are always seen as the days to go all out in the kitchen, yet this family did not have much to put together for the day. A meal like this would not necessarily be posted on Instagram.
Vegetable Curry served with rice and braaied chicken.
As student life get to the best of us; the meals had by the students are valued very much. In this meal we have pap and wors served with healthy cooked chunky vegetables. These students are not very well off as well. In this image you’ll find an example of the heavily filtered image of a salad ready for Instagram. Little would people know that that was all a first-year student had in her refrigerator to prepare for the day?
Freshline chicken salad.
Pap ‘n wors served with vegetables.
Social media plays a role in all of this. We as the generators of certain news should be able to make sure that people know it is fine to struggle and that the meals reviewed on certain pages by chefs should not always be the norm. We as the media need to highlight the issues of malnutrition within the communities one finds oneself in. Most children who are under-nourished on the Cape Flats usually get a special porridge at their local day-clinic, which could be the only meal they’ll ever receive.
Every time a soup-kitchen comes around many people in under-privileged areas become excited. People are misinformed when wanting to give back to the community as the solution of distributing soup and bread is not very sustainable and long-term. We as the media need to make sure all of these problems are highlighted.
Paragraphicly Correct 