Give us our daily bread
After months of not being in use due to lock down, September saw the return of some hustle and bustle to the Big Top Arena at Carnival City.
The occasion was the local launch of Ladles of Love Sandwich and Essential Groceries Drive. Sun International has partnered with Ladles of Love, a volunteer-run soup kitchen that originated in Cape Town, which has now expanded to Gauteng.
The soup kitchen has been collecting sandwiches and groceries for those in need since the beginning of lock down and to date has provided over six million healthy meals to people in need. Carnival City will serve as a drop-off depot for people to donate home-made sandwiches or essential groceries. Ladles of Love will then ensure these are immediately redistributed to communities in need via a network of non-profit organisations (NPOs).
At the launch, Carnival City Casino and Hotel general manager Annemie Turk welcomed special guests to the Big Top Arena before a socially distanced sandwich-making session was held, kick starting the campaign. Ladles of Love founder Danny Diliberto also made a virtual appearance. For the sandwich-making session, Sasko provided enough bread to make thousands of sandwiches, which were then distributed to those in need.
Seithati Nkatlo and Emma Mothivi from Carnival City participated in the making of thousands of sandwiches during the local launch of the Ladles of Love Sandwich and Essential Groceries Drive at Carnival City.
Ladles of Love has expanded dramatically to cope with rising hunger levels since the start of the pandemic. In five years, it has gone from providing 70 meals at their very first soup kitchen to 300 000 meals every week. It was started with one small kitchen serving soup to the homeless once a week and has grown to serving thousands. Then the pandemic hit and the number of starving people in need escalated.
From this the suburban sandwich drive was born, an initiative mobilising people to give back from the safety of their own homes. In a matter of weeks, the drive had rallied families across the Cape to make sandwiches in their homes and over 250 000 sandwiches were re-routed into the new, ever-expanding NPO network of beneficiaries.
Ladles of Love also increased their output of soup to six tons of food weekly which is sent to various shelters, homeless organisations and other community organisations to feed those in need. Seithati Nkatlo and Emma Mothivi from Carnival City participated in the making of thousands of sandwiches during the local launch of the Ladles of Love Sandwich and Essential Groceries Drive at Carnival City.With the launch of the drive in Gauteng, locals can now also get on board and help feed the nation’s hungry. Members of the public can support the drive by signing up and dropping off groceries or home-made sandwiches.
The guidelines for donations are as follows: ensure all food is fresh, unused and unopened; no frozen foods, as it defrosts too quickly; no cooked soup, only sachets, packets, boxes or cans; canned food items can contain meat, chicken and fish; pack your items in bags/boxes to make it easy to pack at the depot; sanitise your donation packages; and ensure your packaging is properly sealed before handing over.
Sandwiches should be made using sliced, fresh, bagged bread. If you use butter or margarine, add a spread. Suitable fillings include jam and/or peanut butter, cheese spread and/or Marmite. Pop the uncut sandwiches back into the original bread bag and reseal well.
Donations can be dropped off Mondays to Fridays, between 09:00 and noon, at the Big Top Arena loading area at Carnival City. Donations can be made until October 3. For more information or to sign up, visit www.ladlesoflove.org.za
