1 500 meals over three days to three communities
Soup Kitchen with Dignity has created 1 500 nutritious meals over three days for communities in Johannesburg.
The brainchild of top local Chef Lungelo, Soup Kitchen with Dignity, aims to fight growing hunger during lockdown that is affecting many communities as families are left without income and can’t access food.
In a country that has so many soup kitchens, the idea of Soup Kitchen with Dignity came to Lungelo after he got tired of seeing people being fed leftovers or off-cuts of food.
“Even though we were feeding the needy, it didn’t feel right and I wanted to be sure that people were being fed fresh and nutritious food. So that, at least, even if nothing is going right at that moment, they know that the one meal they had that day was made from the heart,” said Lungelo.
He added that thanks to the support from partners during this time of Covid-19, he was able to do exactly that without imagining that it would go as far as Gauteng after he initially launched the project to feed the townships of Cape Town.
Independent shop owners from Pick n Pay?s market store programme joined this initiative that started in Cape Town in Nyanga (Ndwamba Market) and Blue Downs (Something Nice Market) and in partnership with PayGas, last month.
Matlala’s Market in Thokoza served their community surrounding their store, as did Lethabo’s Market in Bramfischerville and Eden Park Market in Eden Park. A total of 1 500 people served fresh vegetable soup over three days. Soup Kitchen with Dignity has seen over 3 500 meals being served across seven communities in both cities to date.
Marilyn Muziro and Trevor Martins, owners of Eden Park Market, said that their communities have been hard hit during this pandemic.
“Giving back to the customers that support us is important to us, and we’ve wanted to get on board with such an initiative since we have opened our store in December 2019.”
The feedback from the community was overwhelming and we are glad we could help reach our customers? most immediate needs in the communities that we grew up in and people who have supported us.
“Each market store owner donated food as part of Pick n Pay’s Feed the Nation campaign and set up a kitchen outside their store for Lungelo and Chef Thato Miya to create a quality soup for their communities. Blue Ribbon also donated loaves of bread.
PayGas assisted on the days and gave away a Wonderbag at each store a simple but revolutionary non-electric slow cooker for an open fire which reduces 70 per cent of the wood, charcoal, and any other dirty-burning fuels used in the home when cooking on an open fire.
