KFC commends female volunteers that positively impact their communities

“When a woman rises, the world rises.” This women’s month KFC pays homage to the women who selflessly give their time to better their communities and the world around them through their volunteering efforts.

KFC recognises that volunteers are often the glue that holds our communities together. Communities gain strength from the selfless act of volunteerism whilst the volunteers themselves find utmost fulfilment by doing good.

According to the 2020 Stats SA Volunteer Activity Survey, women are more likely to volunteer than their male counterparts. In 2018, women accounted for 62.9% of all volunteers while 37.1% were male volunteers.

Even though there has been an increase in individual volunteers – there is an urgent need for corporates to get involved as shown by the total hours volunteered in community development increasing from 713 thousand in 2010 to 21,2 million in 2014 and then declining sharply to 8,9 million in 2018.

At the core of KFC’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes lies volunteerism and we have answered this clarion call by providing platforms for volunteers to gain meaningful skills in areas they are passionate about whilst helping tackle the nation’s skills shortage and high unemployment rate. 

The two main volunteer vehicles we have used in this regard are the phenomenally successful KFC Mini-Cricket and Add Hope programmes.

KFC Mini-Cricket

Sport continues to be a strong vehicle for change and a way to holistically help children reach their full potential. We have intentionally focused our efforts on the KFC Mini-Cricket programme and are committed to getting more children involved in the game of cricket, not only as future Proteas women and men players but by helping them become great South Africans and supporters of the game.

The programme, in partnership with Cricket South Africa, is the largest grassroot development cricket programme in the country and gives aspiring cricket players aged between 3 and 12 their first taste of cricket.  The programme delivers over 60 000 matches across the country annually, with over 13 000 volunteer coaches positively impacting the lives of over 126 000 children.

Volunteers play an important role in a male dominated cricket environment as our female volunteers form the bedrock of the KFC Mini-Cricket programme. As of 2020, women volunteers made up over 70% of the KFC Mini-Cricket volunteer coaching community. From the 13 673 KFC Mini-Cricket volunteers in 2020, over 9 500 are women.

The role of volunteers in the development and delivery of the Mini-Cricket programme is critical. The programme has seen a 131% growth in the number of volunteer coaches (5 916 in 2009/10 - 13 673 in 2019/20 seasons), since KFC partnered with CSA on the Mini-Cricket programme, ten years ago.

Understanding the motivation behind acts of volunteerism is key to ensuring the growth and most importantly retention of volunteer coaches in the KFC Mini-Cricket programme. Most volunteer coaches are schoolteachers and are largely motivated by the love of cricket, values, social and self-development factors. Furthermore, KFC Mini-Cricket volunteer coaches whose initial motivations for volunteering were satisfied continued to contribute their time and skills to the programme year after year – even beyond retirement. The KFC-Mini-Cricket volunteer coaches have been an integral part of the success that would not have been achieved without their active participation.

KFC Add Hope  

The KFC Add Hope programme has been feeding kids’ potential through healthy and nutritious meals since 2009, raising money through collections from KFC and R2 customer donations for to children in need.  The programme partners directly with beneficiary organisations to ensure that this is done effectively, responsibly and sustainably as possible. To date Add Hope have provided over 360 million meals - supporting more than 141 different non-profit organisations (NPOs) and feeding 150 000 children daily since inception. Millions of children around South Africa go hungry every day and while  much more needs to be done to eradicate child hunger, this initiative is playing a key part in helping to break the cycle of childhood hunger. The programme is fully run by the KFC Purpose team - a team of women who collectively oversee all of the purpose work KFC which brings the heart of the brand to life in a tangible and real way.  60% of Add Hope’s volunteers are also women – contributing a significant backbone to the brand.

Now more than ever, we have seen how communities can be built and supported by sustainable programmes such as KFC Mini-Cricket and KFC Add Hope. We look forward to continuing to lead purpose lead programmes that empower and support women across the nation.  

Click here for more information on the KFC Mini-Cricket programme, and here for more information on the KFC Add Hope programme.