Help spread the love with feeding scheme

Kate Haywood and Danny Diliberto of Ladles of Love, are calling for volunteers.

Ladles of Love will kick off a weekly feeding scheme at Prestwich Primary School in Green Point tomorrow and they’re appealing to the community for help.

Kate Haywood from Ladles of Love, said they are always looking for volunteers. The organisation has joined forces with others to form Days of Hope, to help schools in poor communities.

“It’s basically organisations that have come together to go to underprivileged schools to implement feeding schemes, life skills programmes and it all starts with one big day of fun for the kids.”

She said the feeding schemes would happen at the school once a week.

“We didn’t want to go in and just do this one-off event; it’s about having a relationship with the school.”

They’re hoping to find businesses prepared to sponsor schools in their communities.

Ms Haywood, who is originally from England, said Cape Town is a city of extremes, but people often didn’t know where to start when trying to make a difference.

“We see these problems and don’t know what to do, so I guess this is why this organisation appeals to people… We need to do it properly, commit to these feeding schemes and see it through.”

But there’s a problem: principals have told them that there’s a lot of stigma attached to the free food the feeding schemes provide. The challenge is finding a way around the stigma.

“We want to make it fun and try and remove some of that stigma and make it something they want to be a part of,” said Ms Haywood.

Danny Diliberto founded Ladles of Love in 2014. He recalls walking along Long Street and offering soup to a homeless man. The encounter spurred him on to the start the organisation and the weekly Tuesday soup kitchen in theCBD.

“Our first soup kitchen was about 70 people and today we serve about 250 meals on a Tuesday,” he said.

The Tamboerskloof resident is now involved in running three soup kitchens including one at the Haven Night Shelter in Green Point where they serve over a hundred meals every Thursday.

“When I started the soup kitchen it didn’t have a name. We decided to do our first Mandela Day event in 2015 and that went really well. It was then that I decided we had to give it a name and have more of life. Ladles needs to do more there are people that need help and I want to expand it.”

Volunteers should arrive at Prestwich School (Prestwich Street, Green Point) at 8.30am on Friday October 14.

For more information, call Ms Haywood at 071 522 7467.