Homeless queue for sandwiches. Photo by Mark Swartz.
20 November 2013
Louis Titus, a 60-year-old married man from Elsies River, was introduced to the Vineyard soup kitchen in Parow four months ago by a friend. Titus worked for the City of Cape Town for 20 years. He currently receives a R1,500 monthly pension. His wife is unemployed. Titus takes the food he receives home to his four children.
Niel Adams, 36, has been eating at the Vineyard for six years. He is homeless and sleeps outside the Parow Civic Centre.
The Baptist, Methodist and Catholic churches that used to provide soup on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to residents have now stopped carrying out the service. The Vineyard soup kitchen runs every Thursday between noon and 1pm. It is the only soup kitchen left in the area.
The Vineyard soup kitchen was established in March 2005 by an American Christian couple, Mark and Flora Swartz. When they started the soup kitchen there were 30 people per week. The number has now increased to between 150 and 200. Beneficiaries come from Goodwood, Elsies River, Ravensmead and Parow North. The soup kitchen caters to all people irrespective of their religious beliefs and participating in the organisation’s religious activities is not a prerequisite for getting food.
There are five volunteers. Lynette Ezel, 66, is a volunteer. She says, “Being Afrikaans, I interact better with the beneficiaries. I know most of them by name. The beneficiaries call the big takeaway box we use for serving Christmas lunch the ‘laptop’. They are asking already when they are going to get their laptops.”
In winter, the Vineyard serves soup mixed with lentils, soya mince and rice. In summer, they serve chicken polony, fish sandwiches and cool drinks. They used to get free soup from the United States if they paid the shipping costs. Now they buy their own ingredients.