I became involved with the soup kitchen in 2015 when my then 15 year old son had to do some community based service for a program that the school ran.  A friend recommended we go to help at the Langrug Soup Kitchen and I have been involved ever since.

The experience of being in Langrug, meeting the amazing community volunteers and of course the wonderful children left such an impression on my son and I that I felt I had to do more. At the time I was Treasurer of the Parent’s Association of my son’s school, Bridge House.  As part of their commitment to the community the PA set aside funds for charity.  I spoke of my experiences of visiting the soup kitchen with the PA and they immediately agreed to pay towards the funding of a soup kitchen once a month.  Gradually, over time, the PA became the admin hub for the soup kitchen. 

During COVID the soup kitchen became part of the Franschhoek Together campaign and started providing food for the wider community not just the children offering a cooked meal twice a week.  This experience really highlighted to me how important the soup kitchen was to the whole community of Langrug.  It was this importance that led me to want to do more so when my son finished school at the end of 2020 I decided it was time to formalise the basis of the soup kitchen and become a registered NPO.  With the help of the other directors Lurien Rawson and Corne Malherbe we became the Langrug Soup Kitchen NPO in 2021.

Langrug is like no other place I have been to in South Africa!  It’s a complete sensory overload but the most striking thing for me are the people.  They are warm and welcoming, wanting to know your story whilst telling you theirs.  Despite the language barriers I have been welcomed in to the community with open arms. 

Our dream for the soup kitchen is to have our own dedicated building, with a roof that doesn’t leak!  From there we would like to provide hot food during the times that school based feeding schemes are not available in the school holidays.  We would like to use this base to identify children who need support by providing things like eye and hearing tests.  We would like to be able to have a kitchen garden to not only provide food directly but to educate the children and the wider community about food security.