Durban — You don't need a mid-life crisis to own a Porsche. The only requirements are a big heart and a bigger bank balance the Sunday Tribune learnt this week.
On Saturday a local non-profit announced that a super sleek 1978 arctic grey Porsche Targa would be auctioned off to raise funds for charity.
Cristine Panday, the founder of the Pink Room Foundation which feeds thousands of people in Durban townships every month, said the car was donated to them so that they could raise funds to continue their work.
“My husband, Akash, collects and restores vintage Porsches and so he has one that he has been working on for years and he has never driven it. Recently he said that it was probably not meant to be his and donated it to the foundation,” she said.
Proceeds from the sale of the Porsche would give more children and families access to a nutritious meal every day she said. At present the foundation services areas around Phoenix, Inanda, Ntuzuma and KwaMashu.
“I come from a lower socio-economic area and I know a lot of people who are struggling and on a daily basis I see people just hanging around looking for work,” said Panday.
Growing up in Phoenix, Panday always dreamt of doing something to help her community.
When the July 2021 riots broke out across the province and communities battled to keep their people safe, Panday made sandwiches for those guarding their neighbourhoods.
Then came last year’s catastrophic floods and the work continued.
Panday started out by making sandwiches in her kitchen, stuffing it with polony, cheese and leftover curries and sharing it with people in various communities.
But the need just grew and soon her kitchen became too small and her husband’s car was evicted from their garage to make space for the sandwich project.
As a teacher she knew that many children went to class hungry because schools were struggling to provide meals.
Panday, a Hare Krishna devotee said the minute she set out her intention to do seva (service) “everything just fell into place” and believes divine intervention guided the Pink Room Foundation which started its work with ten loaves of bread.
Akash, her high school sweetheart and husband of two decades, secured a space for the foundation’s industrial kitchen at Skyworth in Mount Edgecombe, his company’s premises. Then help just flooded in; celebrity chef David Grier and the Cipla Foundation came on board, a trip to the Pebbles Kitchen that does similar community work assisted Panday in refining her operations with the new industrial kitchen.
On Saturday was the official launch of the kitchen and Panday said the first meals would be sent out from their new venue when the school year starts in January.
“The kitchen is here, it is ready for operation, it is ready to push out meals, it's a celebration of the fact that there is a brighter future ahead for children and people in this country,” said Panday.
So, for those wanting to give back and look cool in the process, Panday said Aucor Auctioneers were in charge of the bidding process for the Porsche Targa and a date for the auction would be announced on the company’s website.
In the meantime though, if you are ‘driven by dreams’ as the Porsche tagline says, then you'll have to come up with R750 000 just to be part of the bidding process.
Sunday Tribune