Share a meal with the homeless
Restaurants around the City are encouraged to get involved in The Social Meal Project, an initiative of the Denis Hurley Centre and Ogilvy Durban, which will allow diners to symbolically “share a meal” with a member of the city’s homeless community over this season of giving.
THE DENIS Hurley Centre in partnership with ad agency Ogilvy and Mather Durban is planning an innovative festive season campaign to create awareness about the plight of Durban’s homeless and generate funds to feed them.
The result of the partnership is the joint initiative, The Social Meal Project, where diners at some of the city’s top restaurants are invited to symbolically “share a meal” with a member of the city’s homeless community over this season of giving.
The Project was put together by some of the best creative minds at Ogilvy and Mather who have come up with an interesting concept: when sitting down in one of the partner restaurants or cafes, customers will find a table talker/menu insert, inviting them to join in the Social Meal Project.
This will profile a named homeless person and invite the customer to share a meal with him or her: the customer can make a donation while paying their meal bill in various different ways.
The Denis Hurley Centre’s Raymond Perrier explains “At least 1.4million holiday-makers (locals, South Africans and foreign) come to Durban in the summer to have fun – we want to give them a chance to share the fun with the less fortunate homeless people of Durban.
“Revellers are estimated to spend over R3.1 billion during the holiday season – it costs the Denis Hurley Centre (DHC) 1/1000th of that amount to provide its services to the homeless, refugees and poor of inner-city Durban for one whole year,” Perrier added.
Currently 300 homeless are welcomed at the Centre each day. “We estimate that it costs about R15 to provide breakfast, lunch, a hot shower and clean clothes to one person. We are asking people to pledge R15 (or multiples thereof) so they can “share” a social meal with a homeless person,” he added.
Lwazi Mthabela an account manager at Ogilvy Durban hoped to achieve various goals with the Project, “At this festive time, we want to put a face and a name to some of the homeless community who are typically considered invisible and nameless, and initiate conversations around issues of homelessness; and we invite Durbanites and visitors to donate sufficient money to provide a meal and essential services to one homeless person as they enjoy a restaurant meal of their own.”
Perrier was encouraged by the support of many local restaurants. “We have nearly a dozen restaurants on the Berea who are quite keen, including Pop Up Society, The Prep Room, Ninth Avenue Bistro and we hope others will come on board. The concept is fun like a virtual Durban dinner party, shared on social media. We are proud of the food we serve our fellow citizens, they are “homeless,” not vagrants, they are people and we are really excited about the project,” he said.
Contact Raymond Perrier on 031 301 2240 / 076 570 2497 or raymond@denishurleycentre.org for more information on the Project Or visit www.denishurleycentre.org. Restaurants who are interested in participating can email: socialmeal@denishurleycentre.org.
