Woodstock Brewery and Great Commission United (GCU) have partnered to supply nutritious hot soup meals to hungry communities in the Cape Town metropolitan area as part of a community-led initiative to help those hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has dealt a savage blow to South Africa’s already fragile economy resulting in skyrocketing unemployment, loss of income and destitution for South Africa’s most vulnerable communities. At the same time, food prices have increased by nearly 8%.
Many who could once provide for themselves and their families, are now going hungry.
Great Commission United
Standard Bank of South Africa
Vangate Mall (Code 025909)
Account# 302674667
Ref: Mother Soup + your name
The idea of ‘Mother Soup’ was born out of a simple realisation that Woodstock Brewery had some of the largest kettles in Cape Town that could be re-purposed from brewing beer to making soup.
Using our economies of scale, the Mother Soup initiative provides an average of 7,000 litres of soup per day the equivalent of 21,000 meals (our record to date is 14,000 litres in one day). To date over 1.6 million meals have been provided to feed the hungry.
This is a collaborative effort anchored by Woodstock Brewery and GCU that includes corporate donors such as Premier Brands (Blue Ribbon bread), Hemporium, The Allan and Gill Gray Philanthropy Initiative, the Bateleur Foundation and the Mapula Trust along with individual contributions of funds, ingredients, materials and time.
Our recipes are designed by certified nutritionists and chefs. We add supplements (protein & healthy fats) to ensure that our soup provides the caloric and nutritional equivalent to a healthy balanced meal. And thanks to our friends at Blue Ribbon (who have donated many thousands of loaves), bread is also provided with each meal.
Given our efficiencies in making soup at high volume, along with generous pricing and support from farmers, donations of transport and distribution, and volunteers to help make the soup, we are able to make soup for between R4-R6 per litre. This translates to hot nutritionally balanced, protein and calory rich vegetarian meals for less than R2 per meal!
All activities and costs not directly related to the making and distribution of our soup are covered by donations and volunteers. Unpaid volunteers also supplement the core staff of Woodstock and GCU who make, pack and distribute the soup. That means every rand you donate goes directly into the mouths of those who need it most.
Mario van Niekerk
[email protected]
Adam Kane-Smith
[email protected]
Great Commission United
Standard Bank of South Africa
Vangate Mall (Code 025909)
Current Account #: 302674667
SWIFT CODE: SBZAZAJJ
REF: Soup [+your name]
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