Gig technology company, M4Jam, is separating themselves from the pack by using the power of technology to transform the model of food parcel distribution. With its mobile app capability M4Jam distributes food parcels to those who have lost their income during the Covid-19 lockdown period. On behalf of Cell C and other donors, M4Jam has already disbursed more than R1 million in food parcels to rural and informal settlement communities.

Georgie Midgley, M4Jam CEO says its Food Voucher Project is very different from others in the marketplace in that it solves social distancing as it eliminates the need for queues and flattens the food hamper supply curve. The project reduces costs for NPOs and foundations, injects liquidity into the communities through stimulating the growth of Spazas and accesses the most impoverished and rural communities as their technology has no geographical boundary. 

Another significant distinction from other food hamper projects is M4Jam gathers critical COVID-19 data (or data specifically requested by the client) before beneficiaries collect their hampers. This technology solution is scalable and national.

To date, 1555 have benefited from M4Jam's food parcel project by redeeming 3418 food vouchers from local spazas. M4Jam called on its extensive database of spaza shops and superettes nationwide to coordinate the sourcing and distribution of the donated hampers, which included essential items such as food and hygiene products.

Spaza shops are also benefiting through the project which, to date, has paid out roughly R1 025 400 for goods sourced and packaged into hampers, feeding 8422 people. Those who received hampers on average live in five-person households, 95% of whom were South African, 87%  of whom were unemployed and many of whom had no income. 35% of recipients had a household income of R1600 or less per month. 

Hamper distribution included Gauteng, Free State, Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga, with 24% of recipients deemed high-risk for Covid-19 and  18% over the age of 65. Contents of each hamper included sanitary and hygiene products like toilet paper and soap, as well as a variety of edible products such as maize meal, cooking oil, rice, instant noodles, canned foods, salt and sugar.

“We were in the fortunate position of having executed market research projects gathering data on the informal telecommunications market via spaza shops for Cell C. With this information we could then harness a database of spaza shops across the country in order to distribute the hampers to the most convenient locations for recipients,” says Midgley.

“As soon as we communicated the message over the M4Jam platform, it quickly spread into local communities, and those who needed assistance simply had to sign up and be onboarded to receive vouchers for the hampers. Our thinking behind supporting local spazas is to ensure these small businesses remain open and the funds raised go directly to the food parcels instead of ancillary costs.  

“By using digital authentication, we  put in place a system for spazas to receive requests and package hampers, and to then notify recipients when the hampers are ready for pick-up at their nearest spaza store. This allowed recipients to pick up their hampers at their convenience and without excessive travel costs to streamline the process,” says Midgley.

M4Jam provides training for those who seek a supplementary income from the gig economy by engaging in temporary, short-term work in their area. Midgley says the onboarding of hamper recipients could continue to provide longer-term benefits. 

“Newly registered jobbers can be contracted to conduct work for our clients countrywide. It would mean potentially gaining new skills through the platform to become more marketable for other gig work and creating an income in an economy with a dire shortage of permanent employment.”