Souper Troopers dish out more support
FOOD relief organisation Souper Troopers are on a mission to assist feeding schemes in the most vulnerable areas in the city.
Members visited beneficiaries, Hunger Relief Fund, Ukwazana Kwethu Youth Development Centre in Khayelitsha, the CBD Helping Hands and the Kleinvlei Feeding Scheme yesterday.
The visit entailed meeting those in charge of community kitchens as well as determining how they could be further supported by Souper Troopers. Hygiene and non-pharmaceutical Covid-19 safety items were also distributed.
Fundraising co-ordinator Caryn Gootkin said most of the homeless who Souper Troopers assisted were taken to the temporary shelter site in Strandfontein at the start of the lockdown, and the organisation has since lost track of them.
“We didn’t have a way to contact them or continue our services to them so we pivoted and started looking for ways we could help other communities. We realised that we could use the network that Souper Troopers has built up over the past six years to fundraise for grassroots feeding schemes in the poorest areas of Cape Town,” said Gootkin.
More than 50 feeding schemes are assisted by the Souper Troopers, which has so far raised and paid out as much as R800 000 thanks to donor support.
Kerry Hoffman said Souper Troopers is working to provide holistic support to the homeless:
“We’ve been able to continue from our once-a-month socials of Souper Troopers which is how we came to the understanding that we needed to look at a human hub, a first port of call for people on the streets to really go to and get the basic support needed.”
Hunger Relief Fund’s Charmaine Pretorius has been running a soup kitchen in the Hillview informal settlement since 2007. With Souper Troopers’ assistance, Pretorius is able to provide two daily meals to as many as 350 residents in her community.
Ukwazana Kwethu Youth Development founder and director Tsepo Tsera Sejosingoe said: “Souper Troopers helped us a lot. They give us money to buy groceries, containers to keep our food safe. They helped with so many things, laptops for our organisation, pots to cook.”