Dennis Beckett of the St Peter’s Church handing out from the donated soup and bread as part of their weekly feeding initiative.
A 30-year-old soup kitchen has packed up their operations at the Anglican Church in Hout Bay and gone on the move.
The St Peter’s and St Simon’s Soup Kitchen served several homeless people from the St Peter’s courtyard and kept going with locals serving buttered sandwiches during the lockdown, driving around while maintaining safe social distancing measures.
One of the co-ordinators and former cook, Tim Cartwright, said the soup kitchen decided to jump in where most needed, offering relief to those in need.
“Certain vulnerable charities became casualties as a result of the dire economic situation and others have survived and new initiatives have sprung up to bring relief where needed,” Mr Cartwright said.
The soup kitchen now offers two meals per week and also beefed up their menu by adding some wholesome soup.
Neil Mackintosh, who previously organised the soup kitchen, said the key to the operation will be the dedicated soup providers, who deliver large pots of hot soup to St Peter’s by noon on donor days, which are usually on Thursdays.
Mr Mackintosh said: “The quality and variety of these soups have been simply magnificent.”
He continues to manage emails from soup providers – alerting the soup kitchen when their next pot of soup would be expected.
Once Mr Mackintosh has coached his successor, he plans to step down from his role and focus on another charity he is involved with, Friends of Child Protection.
“All types of soups are acceptable – in the past, the kitchen has distributed a range of soups, from mixed vegetable and beef, pea and ham to chicken noodle and others,” Mr Mackintosh said.
Dennis Beckett from Hout Bay is another volunteer who called on the public to support the kitchen in trying to address hunger.
“We realise that Hout Bay residents are now being canvassed by many charitable organisations. However, we ask you to consider the soup kitchen as a high priority because it operates proper, addressing local hunger and the needs are most evident,” he said.
“Those working for it do so voluntarily.”