Food For Staff: Interview with Londolozi Game Reserve

Transcript

In the lodge business I have learned two things: you don’t mess with people’s money and you don’t mess with their food, and I can assure you that if the staff didn’t enjoy the porridge, I would have heard about it. So, on the basis of that, I can say with full confidence that the staff do enjoy the porridge and as a personal consumer of Nhlayisa – my family and I, we all eat it religiously – it’s quite delicious. I prefer mine with milk, but that’s a personal preference.

The Power Supply porridge is a fortified instant porridge. It’s rich in nutrients and vitamins. Adults and children can eat it and it’s eaten by adding either milk or water. We give our staff Power Supply porridge for a few reasons. We provide them with a monthly ration and we find that the Power Supply porridge is an excellent addition to this ration. It’s high in nutrients and that means that we are sure that our staff are getting a consistent supply of vitamins throughout the month and in the place where we work it’s important that our staff have lots of energy and the conditions are quite adverse; last year’s high was 46 °C, so this is a way that we are sure that our staff are getting the correct nutrition in their diet so that they can do their work.

In terms of the benefits of the porridge, I think many of the benefits are actually hidden benefits. I think, for example, the fact that we as an employer provide our staff with a nutritional supplement, they know about that, they appreciate it and that goes a long way to the goodwill in the employer-employee relationship. And then there’s no way of knowing for sure, but I think if we didn’t provide the porridge, we would probably see a lot more absenteeism, a lot more sick days, given that our staff simply wouldn’t get these nutrients with the other parts of their diet, so I feel that those are the benefits.

Would I recommend this porridge to other lodges? Absolutely. It is a delicious, nutrient-, vitamin-rich porridge, it doesn’t go bad, it lasts a long time, and it’s excellent value. I think it would be crazy not to provide it.

Duncan MacLarty (Londolozi General Manager) –