Food activist’s legacy of hope
There has been an outpouring of tributes for 39-year-old Cape Town community activist and restaurateur Kimon Bisogno, who was killed in a shark attack on 25 September. By
The death of Kimon Bisogno, co-owner of Ferdinando’s Pizza in Observatory, Cape Town, has sent shock waves through the Observatory community, who remember her for her passionate energy and compassion for others.
Bisogno was killed in a shark attack in Plettenberg Bay on Sunday, 25 September, less than three months after another fatal attack on 28 June at Sanctuary Beach.
In a statement on Sunday, Bitou Municipality and the National Sea Rescue Institute appealed to people to be cautious along the Plettenberg Bay and southern Cape coastline. The municipality said the beaches in Plettenberg Bay had been closed following the attack.
There has been an outpouring of tributes for Bisogno on social media. On Tuesday, when visited Ferdinando’s Pizza, which Bisogno co-owned with her partner Diego Milesi, bouquets of flowers had been left outside the restaurant.
Organisations including Ndifuna Ukwazi, Ladles of Love and Souper Troopers paid tribute to the local activist online.
Ladles of Love founder Danny Diliberto told that Bisogno lived her life with passion and energy, and would be sorely missed in the community.
“When I started Ladles of Love in 2014, she would regularly volunteer at our soup kitchens and would also sometimes bring freshly baked bread which her partner, Diego, baked in his pizza oven, and which we served to the homeless at our soup kitchens,”
Diliberto told DM168. “The time that I did spend with her, she was always laughing, always smiling, always positive,” he said.
A few years after Ladles of Love began, Bisogno decided to start her own soup kitchen, with a twist.
With her close friend and cofounder, Dani Saporetti, she started Obs Pasta Kitchen in 2017. The organisation serves home-made pasta to homeless people every Wednesday.
“It’s still every Wednesday. I just have to gather the strength tomorrow and every other Wednesday,” Saporetti said, fighting back tears.
She said that her cofounder was very aware of the needs of the homeless community in Observatory and, with Ferdinando’s restaurant at her disposal, the pair had decided that, rather than being a soup kitchen, the initiative could be a pasta kitchen.
“We got started where we could, and that was feeding outside the restaurant; cooking upstairs in the kitchen,” said Saporetti.
Shortly after that, the feeding scheme was invited to use the hall space at St Michael and All Angels, in Observatory.
“That church hall was where we started making something very special, which is a sit-down meal,” said Saporetti.
Obs Pasta Kitchen would feed an average of 60 to 80 people a week.
“The Obs Pasta Kitchen got started with the message of ‘no one eats alone’ – it’s not just about the food, it’s about the conversation [and] the upliftment,” she said.
Saporetti said Bisogno was clear that the Obs Pasta Kitchen needed to continue “long after she was gone”.
When Covid-19 began, and Obs Pasta Kitchen was forced to close its communal dining area, they approached Diliberto for assistance, and he offered Ladles of Love’s kitchen in Roeland Street.
“We’re behind Obs Pasta Kitchen all the way… We’ve been with them since Covid began and so as long as they continue, we’ll continue with them,” said Diliberto.