A non-profit organisation in Eureka Estate, Elsies River is filling the tummies of hundreds of mense in the community and assisting youngsters with computer literature skills.
Ingrid Davids, 52, founded her soup kitchen Hope-God’s Gift for All in 2019, after doing charity work in her community for four years prior to registering her non-profit organisation (NPO).
Ingrid started cooking before some of the schools in the area were giving learners something to eat.
“We noticed that most children were going to school on an empty stomach and a child can’t learn or focus like that, so that is where we started,” she said.
“We partnered with an organisation called Young People At Work, who comes out and offers free computer classes to the youth and at the end of their course they get a diploma along with a CV.”
Ingrid’s feeding scheme caters for up to 200 mense and she donates clothes, shoes as well as hosts sanitary drives and school drives in January.
“We cater to anyone; we have elderly people as well who are on medication and cannot take their pille on an empty stomach and people who are on disability who need nappies,” she said.
“We are struggling a bit because we do not always get the assistance we need.”
Ingrid, who does all of this while unemployed, depends on donations to keep the feeding scheme going.
She is appealing to mense for any unwanted clothes, blankets and shoes, along with dry ingredients such as bread and off-cuts of polony, or any sponsor with a 9kg gas stove or a two-plate gas stove.
“We do not want money because people think we use the money but we actually use it to fill our gas stoves,” she explained.
“We used to cater three times a week but now we sometimes cater twice a week or sometimes when we have nothing, then we can’t give out food.”
If anyone is able to donate, please contact 083 227 8093 or 079 160 9751.
dailyvoice@inl.co.za