WATCH | Youth lead in Prince Albert's lockdown

Community leader Naaim Briesies, 24, runs a team of about 40 young volunteers who are feeding children during lockdown at the POP Centre in Prince Albert, in the Karoo, in the Western Cape.

Briesies, who works for the Prince Albert Community Trust (Pact), says the children are a model of how to behave under lockdown.

“They would arrive an hour and a half before the meals and wait next to the cones. When we are done with data capturing, I’d come out and they would be sitting neatly in lines, with one or two exceptions from the new children,” he said.

Pact founder Ingrid Wolfaardt said: “The children are showing us the way. They are our ambassadors in their homes. They practise social distancing, hand washing and are emotionally resilient. Some are only preschoolers.”

Within 48 hours of schools closing, members across the whole Prince Albert community decided to provide meals for vulnerable children to prevent hunger.

Briesies announced that he needed volunteers to help and by Monday March 23, he had the first team of 12 ready to work. The youngest volunteer is 15 years old.

On that first day, they had only 5kg of mielie meal, one jar of peanut butter and two packets of sugar, but donations soon flowed in — locally and from as far away as Belgium.

Now about 500 children come to the POP Centre to wash their hands, sing and collect hot food  — served twice a day from Monday to Friday, and breakfast on Saturdays.

By Tuesday this week, more than 7,500 meals had been served at the POP Centre, along with extra meals delivered to vulnerable older and disabled people.

Briesies, also a popular local rapper known as Gellyblik on stage, manages the project.

“I do the shopping, see the volunteers get permits to come to the centre, do the stock control, check the hygiene and talk to the police,” he told TimesLIVE.

“A lot of skills are being developed. I’m a video editor and a sound editor and I’m sharing those skills.”

Petra Brits, who runs All Times Meals Soup Kitchen with Pact’s support, heads up the kitchen.

Three volunteer cooks — including Aletta Masango, who has her own catering service — are also passing on skills to the youngsters.

Donations come from near and far. Farmers are dropping off fresh produce, local spaza shops and the local Spar are giving them supplies, shoppers are putting goods into the red bin and overseas donors, linked to Pact, are also contributing.

“We work very closely with the state school feeding scheme, sharing stock if they need it, or we do,” said Wolfaardt.

“We are hoping post-lockdown we can build on food security for the community.

“I've got messages from volunteers saying their confidence is growing and they are committed to make a difference in their communities.”

Pact has been working to build a “safe and caring community” in Prince Albert since 2013, she added.

“A core leadership group is developing out of lockdown and we hope we can take this forward after lockdown.”