Cape Town - As the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic reverberated in communities, Abbas Restoration House Ministry made it its duty to keep impoverished people fed.
The ministry supports different soup kitchens in various communities around Cape Town with its Dala wat jy Moet feeding initiative which was started in 2013.
Founder, Gloria Veale, said she saw a need for the hungry to get help.
She said the need grew even more from other communities during the hard lockdown last year.
“A lot of organisations and churches were approaching us and so far we enabled feeding stations in 30 communities and support 54 soup kitchens across the Western Cape,” she said.
She said people always talk about violence and evil but she believes the greatest evil and the worst violence against humanity is poverty.
She said Covid-19 came to highlight poverty but it has always existed in poor communities.
“Every time there is a lockdown there’s more unemployment and there is less food coming into our communities,” said Veale.
She said they want to teach people about enablement through supporting them in making food gardens and to teach them about sharing.
She said she has realised that poverty is not the government's responsibility solely but the country’s as a whole.
Veale said they are also looking at starting their own bread-baking project to create jobs for young people and make bread freely available and to create care centres in our communities to heal broken communities.
“Our call is for people not to get tired of giving because most people give for a short period of time and then stop,” she said.
Collette Locket-Scott, who runs a soup kitchen in Hanover Park, is one of the beneficiaries of this initiative.
“We saw a need to help in our community, it got worse when Covid-19 hit us and it has been difficult because we are not government funded,” she said.
She said she thanked Abbas Restoration House Ministry for their help which has seen them continue doing what they do.
“The smiles on children's faces when they come for porridge in the morning is what keeps me going and I enjoy cooking for my community and I will keep cooking,” said Locket-Scott.
Solyla Essop from Bonteheuwel said her community appreciates what she does for them even though it was not easy for her in the beginning.
Essop said every little bit of help is welcomed but they are grateful for the help from Abbas Restoration House Ministry because even the community shows appreciation of what they do.