When a Tafelsig mom saw children going to school hungry every day, she decided to dig into her pocket to make sandwiches for them.
Gusneyah Jacobs, 47, now feeds learners from three different schools in Tafelsig with the help of neighbours and some donors.
She says she feeds as many as she can, depending on how much bread she has.
Gusneyah, who is a baker by trade, has four children, the youngest of whom is 10 years old.
In January, when the new school year began, Gusneyah stood outside Yellowwood Primary School and noticed how children were looking for food before their day began.
GOOD HEART: Gusneyah Jacobs feeds school kids in Mitchells Plain.
“These children were just looking for a slice of bread to eat,” she says.
“They didn’t have breakfast or lunch for school. It broke my heart.
“That day I decided to do something and I bought a few loaves of bread and stuff for the bread like polony. My neighbour assisted me.”
So Gusneyah sat outside the school grounds serving sandwiches with the help of her daughter, Akifah Jacobs, 10, and her neighbour.
The bread is neatly packaged in lunch wrap and plastic.
She says if there is bread left over, she even feeds children who have become homeless due to drug abuse.
FAMILY THING: Akifah Jacobs
The love for sharing and helping, she says, was instilled by her mother, Mymoena Adams, who passed away two years ago and was the family’s baker.
“Whenever she used to bake, I used to run away when I was a child because I didn’t want to bake or watch,” she says.
“When my mother died two years ago, we celebrated our first Eid without her and I saw how expensive it was just to have fancies.
“I took my mother’s recipes and with the help of my neighbour I made a few boxes of fancies, which my family loved.
“Now when there is leftover bread or cake, I give it to those who are hungry, even the drug addicts who look for something to eat.
“I do not look at the addiction at that moment, but that they are hungry.”
CHARITY: Neighbour helping
Last week Gusneyah took to Facebook asking for help to feed the schoolchildren and says she does not want money from the
public but the ingredients, so she can feed more.
“I get a few loaves of bread on a Monday and I do the sandwiches on a Wednesday,” she says.
“But I am finding now that
children are looking for bread on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.
If you can assist Gusneyah,
contact her on 074 202 8626.