Add Hope’s governance framework balances accountability with growth, ensuring every R2 donation reaches hungry children through transparent, ethical operations. The KFC Social Responsibility Trust oversees customer donations and KFC contributions through rigorous partner vetting, KPMG audits and independent reviews.
The trustees are supported by the KFC social impact team, which is responsible for the day-to-day operational administration of the trust. The team’s tasks include administering the budget, aligning programmes to the social impact policy and strategy, and overseeing development, implementation and monitoring of all social impact initiatives administered through the trust. The social impact team makes recommendations to the trustees on the funding of initiatives.
They conduct annual reviews of partners, assessing the outcomes and risks of Add Hope funding, its social impact and sustainability, and the effectiveness of the programme’s monitoring and evaluation framework.
The input of independent experts is important in supporting and enhancing the programme’s effectiveness, impact and integrity. Add Hope’s systems and controls are fundamental in ensuring that contributions from KFC and its customers are applied in line with the objective of combating childhood hunger and malnutrition.
The trust maintains reserves to ensure that feeding can be sustained in the event of an unexpected interruption in donations (for example the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic). These reserves, which are fully funded by KFC, are invested in unit trusts.
All trust costs are funded by the KFC contribution and no R2 donations are used to run the trust.
All suspected incidents are investigated promptly, with findings reported to the trustees and appropriate action taken when necessary.
Each meal is also designed to support children’s cognitive, physical, social and psychological development.
Most partners receive advice from a nutritionist on creating budget-friendly menus, and Add Hope provides training so partners understand the science behind nutrition.
As part of the funding application and reapplication process, beneficiary partners are required to submit two-week rotating menus. This forms part of Add Hope’s due diligence to ensure children in early childhood development centres receive balanced, nutritious meals.
Menus are reviewed annually and assessed against the South African Department of Health’s standards and guidelines for children’s menus, ensuring alignment with food-based standards for early childhood centres and schools. Meals must include appropriate portions of carbohydrates, proteins, vegetables, fruits, dairy and water, while limiting sugar, salt and unhealthy fats. Beneficiary partners should ensure that centres provide at least one third of children’s daily nutritional needs.
During review visits to feeding centres, submitted menus are cross-checked against meals served to ensure compliance, age-appropriate portion sizes and consistent delivery. Add Hope also assesses efforts to accommodate special dietary needs or restrictions to ensure no child skips meals. And it makes sure feeding centres are aware of children’s food allergies.
