Cape Town – Eight-year-old Joshua Roos from Gordon’s Bay established a soup kitchen after seeing hungry
children and families in his
community.
Joshua, who lives with his grandmother, Manda Roos, previously lived in Port Elizabeth, where he saw many children and families struggling to get food.
When they moved to Cape Town, Joshua decided to do something when he realised there were just as many people in the Western Cape without enough food.
Joshua said: “It makes me happy to put a smile on their faces. We make soup, hamburgers and boerewors rolls, and most of the time I help. I mostly do braaiing. I’m good at braaing and peel the potatoes and do the slicing.”
Joshua said he hoped to
continue helping people for a long time.
Roos said Joshua came running into her room one day and told her about his idea.
“I could see that he was very serious about it and I said that we can make a plan. My first thought was we could go to the nearby caravan park because we know a lot of people there are in need.”
Roos said she decided to post about the idea on Facebook to try to get donations, as her disability grant would not sustain the idea.
“We got donations and made soup and sandwiches and went to hand them out, and now there is no stopping Joshua. He always has ideas about helping people.
“Last year, on Youth Day he said he wanted to have a celebration, and we ended up feeding more than 100 kids. We cooked about 90 litres of soup.
“He is also involved in helping the local old-age home, and