NGO aims to smash world record to raise funds on Mandela Day

Let’s honour the words of Madiba, “Our children are the rock on which our future will be built, our greatest asset as a nation. They will be the leaders of our country, the creators of our national wealth who care for and protect our people.”

Ladles of Love, a food relief organisation that have impacted communities for close to a decade are inviting the public to purchase a R150 Mandela Day volunteering ticket via Webtickets.co.za.

They aim to break yet another world record on Mandela Day, 18 July with the highest number of volunteers offering 67 minutes of their time to design, craft, collate, create, or plant items for little children in ECD’s and day care centres in impoverished communities.

Stats SA reported (2021) about 2,1 million (11,6%) of South African households experiencing hunger; Ladles of Love has been a change agent from their humble beginning as a single soup kitchen, and served 70 meals and now are serving 37,3 million plus meals per week.

Ladles of Love joined forces with the AAA School of Advertising in celebration of Youth Month with the Youth Challenge Campaign. These students are challenging fellow schools, colleges and university students, teachers and parents to help set this year’s world record.They will be collecting essential items needed for the Mandela Day activation stations. By mobilizing the youth, Ladles of Love are encouraging them to be part of the solution and to become Love Activists.

“As Founder of Ladles of Love, my passion has become about spreading #LoveActivism – it’s about creating a society of kindness, compassion and love. For this reason Mandela Day has become the most important day of the year as it personifies #LoveActivism in action. For me Ladles is about the power of collaboration – bringing people together for one reason – to spread Love. During the pandemic on this special day, we achieved feats I never thought we would reach and this year I am really proud and passionate of our Mandela Day slogan – ONE DAY. ONE GOAL. ONE LOVE, because this is what it’s about, calling on 6700 people to come together and do their 67 minutes for our children, shares Danny Diliberto.

“We are delighted to partner with Ladles of Love on Mandela Day. Ladles of Love's dedication to alleviating hunger and poverty inspires us daily, and resonates deeply with our ambition to foster well-being, health, and equity within our food ecosystem. Together, we look forward to harnessing the power of collaboration and community engagement to make a lasting impact on the lives of children in need. Through our enduring partnership with Ladles of Love, we strive to inspire others and drive positive transformation within our communities and beyond, shares Henry Mathys, Senior Manager: Social Impact and Food Ecosystem Head, V&A Waterfront.

The event takes place in Cape Town's V&A Waterfront Look Out and Oranjezicht City Farm Market, and in Gauteng, AtEds, Old Edwardian Club, Houghton, tickets are available via Webtickets.co.za.

As a PBO, Ladles of Love is qualified to issue section 18A Tax certificates to all Individuals and companies sponsoring children to assist in reaching their goal.

For more information follow Ladles of Love on Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, and Twitter.

For media queries contact Candice Jansen for Cape Town media queries on email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and Dionne Domyan-Mudie on email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for Jozie media queries.

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Issued by:Heads Up Communications and TPW AgencyOn behalf of Ladles of Love

Editor’s Notes:

Ladles of Love

Ladles of Love is a non-profit organisation which aims to provide meals to people living in abject poverty across the Cape Peninsula and Gauteng. The project is the brainchild of Danny Diliberto, who started his first soup kitchen in 2014 serving hundreds of homeless people in Cape Town nutritious meals every week. During the Covid-pandemic the organisation grew exponentially, to be one of the largest non-profit providers of food relief in South Africa, serving impoverished communities via a network of 200 soup kitchens.  Since March 2020 Ladles of Love has procured and provided food to serve over 34.5 million meals and continues to feed 35,000 people a day, relying solely on funding and donations.

To sustain the organisation, they run campaigns like the Sarmiethon where volunteers and sponsors can engage to do good for good by making sandwiches to pay forward. On Mandela Day they smashed their third World Record, this time it was for ‘the world’s largest food can mosaic’ raising funds and 112,500 cans of food.

Statistics

• 30 million people in SA are food insecure
• An estimated 2.5 million adults and 600 000 children in South Africa are starving every day or almost every day
• Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, by December 2020, child hunger had increased by 50% in SA and children were also more depressed.
• In the third quarter of 2022, the unemployment rate in SA reached 27,9% among workers aged 35 – 44 years.