Walvis Bay soup kitchen to provide hundreds of meals to Covid-patients

Eileen van der Schyff

The Covid Task Force, spearheaded by the Erongo Regional Council’s Constituency Councilor for Swakopmund, Cllr. Ciske Howard-Smith, welcomed its Walvis Bay Covid Task Force Soup Kitchen team on Wednesday. The Walvis Bay team will be manning a soup kitchen from the Walvis Bay Civic Centre to supply soup to patients at the Walvis Bay state hospital and also for patients who are isolated and recovering at home.

In many homes, residents cannot prepare food because they are too ill. Others are feeling well, but they cannot go out into public to go and purchase food at their local store.
At the helm of the Walvis Bay initiative is Mrs. Michelle Crawford-Terblanche who will also coordinate the receiving of all donations, be that cash or ingredients.
The food preparation started in all earnest on Wednesday. Yesterday morning, the first 100 soup meals were delivered. The effort is picking up momentum, as donations pour in and more volunteers added to the team.
The soup is prepared in the kitchen of the Walvis Bay Municipality’s Civic Centre town hall. Crawford-Terblanché on Wednesday told the newspaper the soup kitchen team will cook 100 portions of rich, hearty soup every second day for these patients.
Excess soup will be delivered to Ms Ziska Mostert, a member of the Joint Walvis Bay Residents Association, for distribution among those Covid-19 patients who are at home in isolation.
The soup kitchen is in need of donations from the public to further carry out this initiative: there is a need for beans, lentils, fresh vegetables, fruit, chicken and red meat. Crawford-Terblanché explained the kitchen also needs volunteers to help with the cutting and peeling of vegetables and to deliver the food.
“At the moment, I have five helpers, which are my children and their friends and I also have the help of two municipal workers in the kitchen.
Howard-Smith and Crawford-Terblanché on behalf of the Task Force thanked the Walvis Bay Municipality for the usage of the kitchen and also for the help with the registration of the soup kitchen as a Non-Profit Organization. A special thanks went out to Mr. Deville Dreyer, Mr. Jan Kruger, Ms Lani Coetzee and Ms Felicia Pritzlaff who through the Office of the Mayor, Cllr Trevino Forbes assists in this initiative. A thank you also goes out to African Marketing, West Pack Lifestyle on the discount of the soup containers and Walvis Bay Self Service Multi-Save for sponsoring bread. For any donations, please contact Michelle Crawford-Terblanche at 081 639 0456.