Seeing children vomit from hunger then scoff down bread as soon as they receive it is among the saddest things volunteers at a Nelson Mandela Bay soup kitchen have witnessed.
Using this painful experience to motivate them, those who run the Believe and Achieve nonprofit organisation's soup kitchen in Chatty 11 stepped up their game.
Already providing food to the needy in Chatty on Tuesdays, they applied to Bingo Royale in the Cleary Park Shopping Centre for assistance.
This week, the gaming institution sponsored a container and a variety of pots and utensils, as well as a deep freezer to the NPO.
Kyron Kerspuy, whose husband, Dalon, founded the NPO in 2017, said it had initially been established to get young people together.
"We decided, however, to get the soup kitchen going first..Now that it is established, we will focus on the programmes for the youth," Kerspuy said.
Another member, Andrea Kerspuy, said they fed between 250 and 300 children and adults on Tuesdays, and did another feed in Salt Lake on Thursdays where they partnered with other organisations in Bethelsdorp Extension 32.
"We have only one sponsor, who provides us with bread. We are 20 members of the NPO.
"Each of us gives R100 monthly and we use that to buy the ingredients for the food," Andrea said.
Kerspuy said that when they started looking for sponsorships, Bingo Royale had indicated that it was in the process of identifying projects to support.
"We applied to the institution for a sponsorship, and we were successful in being awarded the container as well as equipment."
They said the service they provided was crucial because a social worker had told them about seven children who had died of hunger in the area over a period of six months this year alone.
"We are still looking for more sponsors because, for example, we use four bags of potatoes to feed the community here once a week.
"The R100 per member per month is not sufficient for what we want to do," she said.
Andrea said in many instances this was a child's only meal for the day when schools closed and there was no nutrition programme.
"Some children even vomit from hunger. Other children come from school and stand in line wearing their school uniforms waiting for us to start handing out food."
Bingo Royale general manager Carmen Miles said they were always looking for opportunities to give back to the community.
"This was one of the projects that touched our hearts because hungry kids now have a place to turn to.
"The container is a stable structure, but we appeal to the community to take ownership of it."
