Sonrise Community Church and Academy joined multiple local establishments to honour the 67 minutes for Mandela Day on Saturday at the Edleen Circle by feeding passers-by with soup.
The initiative fed many homeless and troubled members of Kempton Park.
Reneé Erasmus from CPF Sector One also involved in the day said, “Our Mandela Day feeding project was a great success thanks to kind contributions and donations. We managed to feed 160 troubled and homeless people.”
He added that without the help of the community the achievement would not have been met.
“Thank you to Norkem Park SAPS, CCF Sector One, DA ward councillors, Super Cops and Ds Willie and all those generous Kemptonians who reached out,” he said.
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Francis dos Santos from Sonrise Community Church told Express that this project has been feeding troubled community members for the past six months, long before lockdown.
“Due to the strict regulations, the need has grown tremendously and we’ll keep going with our soup outreaches and food parcel projects.
“There were three Grade 11 youth volunteers from the school, Tumelo Matseding, Lamont Khoza and Shammah Peteni, who took the entire Friday to assist in cutting and peeling the veggies used for the soup, which was a tremendous help.”
Each passer-by was offered a bowl of warm soup, a bread roll and a bottle of cool drink on-the-go as this Mandela Day celebration sought to honour and assist those suffering in their community.
Dos Santos thanked Reneé and Monica Erasmus from Random Acts of Kindness, Elyse and Ryan Seal.
“Tamryn and Russel Wells and lastly Sharmaine Mari for allowing us the use of her pots for the soup and for extending invitations towards the community to join in.”
Dos Santos also thanked Russel for loading goods and soups in their car and driving out on the streets to reach the homeless in the wider area and for contributing to the Mandela Day service.
