During the first week of December, Community soup kitchen Chev’s Kitchen hosted an early Christmas party and end-of-year celebration for 300 children in Athlone. Children were treated to a day of fun with a jumping castle, toffee apples, cupcakes, ice lollies, hot dogs, beverages, candy floss, party packs and gift bags with sanitary packs and toys. Parents and the elderly were also served with curry and rice and received a small food parcel.
With R150 left for travelling to go to campus, Frans chose to instead make sandwiches to be distributed to his community. They were distributed throughout April, and with the assistance from the Oranjezicht Community Action Network, he was able to provide meals such as breyani and lentils.
“After the lockdown happened, everything closed, campus closed and I just started thinking, ‘what about the hungry people’. We’ve always had soup kitchens in the area but because of Covid-19, people became scared to give and places started closing,” said Chevano Frans, founder of Chev’s Kitchen.
With the assistance of 15 volunteers, Chev’s Kitchen has been operational since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic to provide food relief during the lockdown. Volunteer from the UK, Caroline Lacy said: “It’s been really nice because I am a volunteer and I bring sandwiches for Chev’s and then he uses it to give to the communities so it’s actually nice to see some of the community and the children because we don’t always see the end of what we do”.
