The festive season is not a happy time for everyone, especially the most vulnerable in our society, such as the Central City’s community of street people, and one can only imagine the added stress and anxiety that is caused to this community when NGOs take a break from their usual provision of services over this period.
When a facility such as The Service Dining Rooms – which has become a pillar of hope in the CBD for those who depend on it for a daily meal – closes for the festive period, the very real question of where a street person can go to obtain sustenance can feel insurmountable to that individual. However, this festive period was a little different, thanks to one of the Cape Town Central City Improvement District’s (CCID) partner NGOs, The Carpenter’s Shop, various NGOs, sponsors and volunteers. Not only did it agree to keep its ablution facilities open during certain hours of the day, it also spread a bit of festive cheer by stepping in to feed up to 300 vulnerable people daily until 15 January 2018, by which time other facilities had begun to reopen.
Throughout the rest of the year, The Service Dining Rooms' facility plays an important role by providing hundreds of meals a day. The organisation’s building in Canterbury Street has a dining room that serves food to homeless people from Monday to Friday for only R1. It’s staff also hand out coupons to those in need of food but can’t afford to pay.
As everyone needs to recharge their batteries, it is understandable that the NGO’s team also takes a break from December to early January. This then leaves a huge gap as many homeless people end up without access to food during this already tough period. For the second festive season in a row, however, The Carpenter’s Shop, has been filling that gap – last year through the assistance of compassionate volunteers who stepped forward, and this year by providing the service themselves. As a result, vulnerable people who wouldn’t normally have food for four weeks continue to receive a daily meal.
According to Pat Eddy, manager of CCID Social Development, the festive season can be a very difficult time for homeless people without families and, previous to 2016, there wasn’t an alternative for when the Service Dining Rooms closed.
“With The Carpenter’s Shop filling the gap with other NGOs and volunteers, street people not only have food, but also a sense of belonging and sharing and the ability to socialise; something that goes a long way in helping to ease the anxiety or emotional triggers over the festive period.
“It’s great to see a wider community standing together to help take care of the most vulnerable, especially during the festive season.”
According to Janet Chadwick, coordinator for The Carpenter’s Shop’s festive season campaign: “It was most definitely a group effort.
“We had a number of donors who contributed financially towards the food and sundries for the campaign, as well as about 83 volunteers who engaged with us in serving. Basically, we partnered with Ladles of Love (which provided meals on Wednesdays and Fridays), RPJ Helping Hands (which provided meals on most Tuesdays and Thursdays), Roxy Late Night (which provided food on two of the Mondays), and on the rest of the days, I cooked for The Carpenter’s Shop.”
Various sponsors also lent a huge helping hand, adds Janet: “The Central Methodist Mission sponsored the packaging for a number of our days, Gourmet Foods sponsored a lot of staples like soya mince, samp and flour. The Service Dining Rooms asked their donors to give their donations to us while they were closed, Peninsula Beverages sponsored sodas for our Christmas Day feed and Help the Homeless assisted us to prepare and serve food. Individual donors also brought vegetables and chicken, and helped with the cooking.”
A few weeks ago, a heart-warming video by Channel 4 News in London about a once-homeless man and his dog went viral. In the video, the man named Andy says: “When you’re [out] there hungry and no one’s noticing you, just walking by as if you don’t count, in your mind, it convinces you that you are worthless, that you don’t count.”
Pat has no doubt that the street people of the Central City and beyond share Andy’s sentiments: “And maybe, if many of us were in similar shoes, we’d feel the same way.
“Hopefully, initiatives such as these will inspire and encourage other entities – be they private individuals or corporates in the CBD – to come forward and work with us and our NGO partners to find year-round solutions to the challenges street people face.”
Image by The Carpenter's Shop