Port Alfred Soup Kitchen in call for help after Lotto pulls plug

Since inception in 1998 the Port Alfred Soup Kitchen has continued its work of feeding the needy people of Ndlambe.

Numbers have dramatically increased over the years and while there have been moments of despair, hope has prevailed and we now manage to feed the hungry and more especially the elderly and children three times a week.

A lot of this, over the last nine years, has been partly due to some funding from the National Lotteries Commission for which we are grateful.

The National Lotteries Commission’s call for applications for Charities Sector opened April 1, however, it has excluded food distribution which includes soup kitchens on this call.

After numerous phone calls to the NLC, no hope was forthcoming and it was clear that any service dealing with food distribution, such as our soup kitchen, would not be eligible for funding.

A devastating blow hit the hearts of our members as we thought of the many children, elderly, sick and unemployed who may now go hungry. So many generous donors from both local and abroad continue to help keep us going but the Lotto has always played a major role in securing funding for the soup kitchen.

Losing this funding has left the Port Alfred Soup Kitchen having to reach out.

We, therefore, appeal for any assistance with funding or food that will help us continue our vision that “no one goes to bed on an empty stomach” and in the hope that we won’t need to close our doors on the people we have come to know and have helped for so long.