The 50 litres of nourishing soup my friend Jenny Kay and I made on Sunday in response to Chefs with Compassion's #67000litres for Mandela Day Challenge was our small contribution towards helping this volunteer organisation achieve a worthy goal.
This non-profit, which was founded by chefs as a response to the Covid-19 crisis, aims to fight food waste while feeding the many South Africans in need — a situation worsened by the unrest last week.
Jenny and I both raided our fridges and store cupboards, and with generous donations of veggies, created bubbling cauldrons of soup, which we tended on the stove. Our edible donation provided a single hot meal for the members of a small community in Bram Fischerville, Soweto, on Mandela Day.
Sunday was a more subdued affair than the inaugural #67000litres Challenge in 2020, when we'd joined one of the many satellite kitchens that popped up around the country manned by hundreds of volunteers. Intensified lockdown restrictions due to the pandemic meant a crowd coming together wasn’t possible this time.
Last year, Chefs with Compassion smashed their original target, producing more than 77,000 litres of soup in a single day.
This Mandela Day, with the help of more than 280 home cooks and professional chefs cooking from the safety of their own kitchens, the organisation did it again: 70,897 litres of soup was prepared and distributed to more than 283,000 people in food vulnerable communities in nine provinces. A souper result!
• Chefs with Compassion is one of several organisations working tirelessly to fight the food shortages caused by the recent spate of rioting and looting in parts of SA. Should you wish to help, click here for a list of charities that need your support.
