Dishing up With Ladles of Love
Rather than lazing about while you shake off the week, make your Saturdays proactive by volunteering to give meals to the homeless. This week, Brownie Points ambassador, Sasha Fairhead writes about a Cape Town NPO with a big heart and overflowing cups of generosity.
Every Saturday at 12 noon, Ladles of Love, a Cape Town based NPO, sets up outside The Carpenter’s Shop on Roeland Street, Gardens. They provide a cup of soup, some bread, and anything else that’s been collected, such as juice or biscuits, to the homeless in the area. I had the opportunity to help out a friendly group of enthusiastic volunteers one Saturday – tasked with handing out biscuits. It was wonderful to see the smile on the faces of those who came, where something as simple as a cup of soup can make such a difference. I was able to ask the founder, Danny a few questions about Ladles of Love, how it started and what he hopes for the future of the charity. Here’s what he had to say.
What made you start Ladles of Love?
While on a breathing and meditation course in July 2014, we were tasked to go into the streets and serve the homeless a cup of tea. Instead, I arranged with the teacher and my restaurant to serve a hearty cup of soup. After arranging the soup from my restaurant, we went out in search of homeless people to serve.
While walking along Long Street, there was one individual who was rather drunk and wrapped in a dirty duvet, shouting and swearing at another individual across the street. As I approached him it was as if the homelessness had left him, and he was very polite as I offered him a cup of hot soup. After he thanked me I walked away and the homelessness seemed to have returned.
At that moment, I realised that if a hot cup of soup can restore another’s dignity, even for just a moment, then this us what I must do and so the soup kitchen was born in July 2014.
How have you seen Ladles of Love progress?
We’ve grown from serving around 100 bowls of soup a week, to over 63 000 meals in 2017 alone, at about
around half a ton of food a week. We also now provide food to 3 different schools and work with other organizations such as Uturn, Care Cruisers and Carel Du Toit.
What are the challenges the charity faces?
Although it’s not been a challenge and we always seem blessed with donations to provide all this food, donations can at times come in very slow.
Currently we need assistance picking up and dropping off food for school kids.
If you’d like to get involved, you can check out our event here.
What are you future ambitions for Ladles of Love?
Our next step is to make Ladles of Love independent of the restaurant by creating a space
for our own offices, kitchen and possible dining area. My philosophy, however, is to use a minimum amount of the donations towards admin costs and rather keep this for their main purpose – feeding the needy. So, we are currently working on business ideas that can generate an income, and profits from that can be used for admin costs. In other words, remaining true to being a non-profit organization.
Ladles of Love is a small but fantastic Non-Profit Organisation. Volunteering with Ladles of
Love, on a Saturday or at any of their other events is a great way to give back to our city and
do something for someone else. If you are unable to volunteer, then Ladles of Love is always
looking for people to donate funds, food or even furniture for when they have their own
independent restaurant.
For more information, check out their website; or sign up to volunteer. See you at their next event!
