Thembakazi ‘Roundy’ Peter – South African COVID Hero

Thembakazi ‘Roundy’ Peter, and her small container turned kitchen, became a lifeline for many hungry families in the rural community of Ntabankulu, Alfred Nzo District Municipality in Eastern Cape, South Africa. The Eastern Cape is the poorest province in South Africa and the kitchen is in an area with one of the highest rates of child malnutrition with child hunger rates at 48% between 2002 and 2019 and 44% of children living below the poverty line, a rate which increased rapidly during COVID-19 (Ellis 2022). COVID-19 and its accompanying lockdowns, travel bans, and other restrictions made a dire situation worse for the community of Ntabankulu. However, our intervention and the hard work of our COVID Hero ‘Roundy’, as she is affectionately known, helped this community see some rays of hope where there was hunger and desperation.