A Pizza Party helped raise funds for 4 future chef's schooling.

Photo Credit: Cats Coming from Pexels

The Food4Fees initiative teamed up with Piza ē Vino to host a pizza party which helped four culinary arts students raise funds to pay their tuition.

Food4Fees was started by Nthato Malope as a way to help reduce fees for students studying the culinary arts. He noted that in a recent study done amongst students at University of Johannesburg (UJ), approximately 40% of culinary arts students drop out because they can’t afford to pay their fees.

He took this sad statistic and paired it with the student’s skills… cooking! He thought that if the students could use food to pay for their tuition, most of their problems would be solved.

The Food4Fees initiative partnered with Piza ē Vino, an Italian restaurant brand part of the Doppio Zero Group, and hosted a ‘Pizza with Purpose’ party. It was an ‘all you can eat’ pizza evening that aimed to raise enough money to contribute to the tuition fees of culinary students from UJ’s School of Tourism and Hospitality (UJSTH).

The night was a big success and the pizza party generated R20,000 that could go towards 4 students total fees. The event took place in June 2017 and just the other day, the Food4Fees initiative selected the 4 lucky recipients of the funding. They will be receiving their funding at an event at Pize ē Vino this coming Thursday.

“As students, we are excited that #Food4Fees through the Pizza With Purpose initiative is helping us future chefs stay in school. The Pizza With Purpose initiative will go a long way in the fight against student debt and my whole family is really grateful for that.” – Godisang Pusoe, Student

“We believe that all students should get a chance to finish their studies and that their inability to afford to pay their fees should not hold them back. We worked closely with UJSTH to select four students in their 2nd year, who are in the top of their class and are on a NSFAS loan, which means they really need the financial assistance. We’re equally committed to growing the next generation of culinary experts in South Africa and together with our fantastic customers, our ‘Pizza with Purpose’ initiative helped us make a difference to some deserving students.” – Paul Christie, director at Piza ē Vino

This initiative is a massive relief, especially considering that South African students have accumulated over R8-billion in student debt since the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) was founded in 1999.

We apologise if this post has made you crave a pizza, but what are your thoughts on this cool idea?