Soup-a-Stars of Cape Town's South Peninsula

Mon May 11, 13:00 - Thu Dec 31, 11:00

The re-purposed Longbeach Brewery

ABOUT






Pull a pint of kindness


Missing your favourite tipple at your favourite bar? Well, we’re brewing up something that will make you feel just as warm and fuzzy, and will help feed at least 1400 people a day. Inspired by the Woodstock Brewery Soup Kitchen, which uses brewing vats and equipment to make litres and litres of soup, we want to do something similar in the Cape Peninsula.


Covid-19 is not only a health crisis, it’s a major hunger crisis. With your help, we aim to join the area’s existing network of community soup kitchens and pour in as much nourishment and kindness as possible. That’s something to toast, right?


How you can help!


With our access to massive vats usually fizzing away with beer at Longbeach Brewery, we’re aiming to make a LOT of soup on a daily basis. We’re talking 350 litres! Which, based on a 500ml serving, is enough to feed 700 people. For this, we need 170kg of vegetables, and each 500ml serving would cost roughly R5.


With the generous help of Longbeach Brewery owner Charlie Murray, and guided by Andre Viljoen at Woodstock Brewery, who pioneered the idea, we’re eventually hoping to scale up our soup-making to twice a day, 3 times per week, meaning we could produce 4200 servings per week! This is distributed into Masiphumelele, Ocean View and Vrygrond via various community run kitchens. The soup we deliver give the tireless community hero's running these kitchens a chance to catch their breathe, even if it's just for a day.


We've also partnered with the Olympia Bakery in Kalk Bay who through the kind sponsorship of flour from a private individual are able to supply us with 90 loaves of fresh bread to go with every 350 litres of hot soup that we deliver. If you're interested in sponsoring this flour that helps to contribute for future loaves please speak to us directly and we will connect you with Olympia.


Think about it this way...


A pint of beer costs about R40.

For R40 you can feed about 8 people.


So why not buy a ‘round’ of soup for every time you would normally go down to your local? You would be spending the cash anyway, right? So why not channel your brew bucks to those who are truly struggling in this time of crisis? Remember, the equivalent of one pint of beer (R40) will feed EIGHT hungry people. And please keep coming back!


Become a regular, as you would at your favourite bar! And one day, when we’re allowed to order a pint again, you can quietly toast your contribution and the difference it made. Without you, we can’t do this. Let’s brew up some kindness.


Thank you for your generosity; for putting your brew bucks towards helping those in need of something many of us take for granted. Without you, this project is nothing.


So, cheers to you, and all you do!


This project is a collaboration with Living Hope charity, an NPO that has been active in Masiphumelele, Ocean View, Redhill , Vrygrond and Capricorn park for many, many years. They will be distributing the soup via their existing networks as they understand exactly where this soup is needed..


** R500 000 target = 100 000 people fed a generous 500ml serving of soup




Further information:

Covid-19 and the Hunger Crisis: Towards a Food Sovereignty and Community Driven Solidarity Partnership with Government, Solidarity Fund and Grassroots Organisations


Before Covid-19, 30.4 million people (out of a population of 58.8 million) lived under the upper-bounded poverty line of R1227 per month. At least 14 million people were going to bed hungry. Health data highlights 1 in 4 children under 5 years were malnourished. Moreover, stunting of boy children under 5 years is 30% and girl children under 5 years is 25%. Due to low incomes and poverty, 27% of adults are obese and 51.9% are overweight. The lock down has now suspended the livelihoods of a further 4 million people in the informal sector (including 1 million domestic workers, 2.6 million informal traders and thousands of waste reclaimers, car guards, small scale fishers and more). Unemployment was at 10.4 million (38.7%) before Covid-19 and has gone up during the lockdown. In this context the hunger crisis is huge and one estimate suggests at least 30 million people have been experiencing food stress in South Africa during the Covid-19 lock down. This painful reality is widespread in many communities, in both urban and rural settings.


Currently, the price of an essential basket of goods (38 food items) has gone up from R3221 to R3470.92 (an increase of 7.8% or R249.42). These increases cancel gains made in the older persons and child grants. In grant-recipient-households there is also more than one mouth to feed which places a lot of stress on resources. The median wage in South Africa is R3500 which puts immense pressure on households, given competing needs. The current cost of a domestic and personal household hygiene products basket is R694.74. Food in poor households, capable of buying an essential basket of goods, now lasts just two weeks rather than three weeks.