Raphael Wolf
WITNESSING the hardships of poverty and unemployment among many Seawinds residents inspired local good Samaritan Rashied Leffule into starting his Seawinds Feeding Scheme soup kitchen.
“I started this soup kitchen nine years ago at my home, where I give out food twice a week on Mondays and Fridays. On Monday’s I prepare two 200-litre pots of soup and 300 loaves of bread to give to hungry people, and on Fridays I distribute three 300-litre pots of akhni food (mixed rice and curry) to between 400 and 450 families and 120 children,” said Lefulle.
The number of people his scheme feeds is determined by when people get paid their disability, child maintenance and other grants, “because when that happens, people have a bit more money and don’t come to the soup kitchen”, he said.
Before starting his soup kitchen, he had been working delivering ice cream in Southfield, said Leffule: “I saw an old lady giving soup to pensioners, and that motivated me to run a soup kitchen at home because there is a high rate of unemployment and poverty in our area. I have this passion for community work.”
All items used in preparing the food at his home are donated by local businesses and people in the community, he said.
“We would love to have this operation from Mondays to Fridays, but due to funding, we are only able to operate twice a week,” said Leffule, who was retrenched about 15 years ago.
His soup kitchen also distributes 30 loaves of bread, 700 grams of coffee, 5kg of sugar, 200 teabags and packets of biscuits per month to another Seawinds organisation.
Leffule hosts a senior citizens’ lunch annually for about 200 to 300 people at the Seawinds Multipurpose Centre, and donates 50 loaves of bread to a Lavender Hill woman for the Prince George Primary School.
His daughter Aisha Leffule-Jedaar said she was very young when her father started the soup kitchen, which had originally been at the home of one of her father’s friends.
She said: “ As a young girl I had so much empathy for the needy, there were way too many people in need of a plate a food, and to me, that was sad.
“The feeding scheme means the world to my family. It has become a part of ourselves.
“We are completely honoured to have a father that is so passionate about feeding the needy.”