On Christmas Eve, Cape Town’s Dignity Kitchen thrived with volunteers preparing 14,000 meals for the unhoused, showcasing the spirit of giving through the #Feed5000 initiative. On Christmas Eve in Cape Town, just down the road from the fire-damaged parliamentary buildings, a soup kitchen was abuzz with activity. People of all ages stood at the countertops, chopping large piles of butternut and potatoes.
Huge pots bubbled on the stove. A speaker in the corner blasted upbeat music. Every year, over the festive period, the Dignity Kitchen, run byLadles of Loveandthe Hope Exchange, provides lunchtime meals to people in need.
Between 15 December 2025 and 11 January 2026, volunteers are assisting the nonprofit organisations to provide more than 14,000 meals to Cape Town’s unhoused community as part of the #Feed5000 programme. Reflecting on the importance of the soup kitchen’s service, Ladles of Love founder Danny Diliberto said, “We live in a country with a lot of poverty. Those who have, if you want to keep your situation healthy, you can’t just take, sit back, do nothing about it and expect your world to survive…
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If you want your world to survive, you need to take care of the world that is not surviving. That’s what makes our country sustainable.” Finding volunteers is not a problem, said Diliberto. On an ordinary day over the festive period, the kitchen has 15 slots for serving meals and eight for food preparation.
For Christmas Day, Ladles of Love was seeking 100 volunteers to assist in serving 800 meals to unhoused persons in Green Point. Within two days, all the slots had been filled. Daily Maverick spoke to volunteers who gave their time on 24 December to prepare food and serve meals.
One volunteer, Chantal Terry, was there with her sons, Phoenix and Storm. “I think everybody has a story, even us; we have our own story. But I think the really important thing to do is, time is so important, so being able to give back your time, money always helps.
If you can, if you’re in a position to do that. And a meal — nobody should go hungry at this time of year. A meal is something very simple that we all often take for granted, and already today you can see the big difference that it makes.”DM
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