DESPITE the gun violence and klipgooiery rife in the community of Manenberg, Valerie Oliphant has been ensuring for the past six years that the children are taken care of with something to eat.
Valerie established her non-profit organisation named Varlerie’s Feeding Scheme after she and a friend started handing out food to the less fortunate in the community out of their own pockets.
That gave birth to her annual Christmas lunch where this year she treated around 300 underprivileged children in Manenberg with food and party packets.
Valerie explained: “My colleague and I started our journey about six years ago where we made food on a Monday and Friday out of our pockets for our community where we feed around 200 people. Each year, we host a Christmas lunch for about 300 underprivileged kids of Manenberg.
“The reason for giving this lunch to the kids is because we feel that there is a child that can't have a decent meal on Christmas and as we know every child's dream is to have something nice and sweet.
“Our motivation behind the lunch is to show each kid that there is hope outside of their situation.
“Najuwa and I have been giving this lunches for over three years. So this year we would be catering for 250 kids."
The children were treated to a full-course meal, including chicken, sausage, three types of salads, savouries such as pies, samoosas, pizza and juice
For dessert, the laaities were treated to some ice cream with a sauce over and also cake in a box.
En dis nie al nie, the kids were treated to a lekker jol with a DJ and a jumping castle.
Valerie added: “My passion began at a very young age whereby I was raised in a house with love and respect but also didn't have what most young kids had meaning there was many nights where we had to go sleep without a solid plate of food but my granny always see that we eat something even if it was just bread with tea.
“As I grew older, I developed a passion to not let any go hungry around me and that's where I've put my trust and my faith together to always do my utmost best to feed my community and make 100 litres of food twice a week to feed about 250 people from my community.”
Valerie is asking for assistance towards any dry ingredients for her feeding scheme. If you can help, please contact 062 630 1825.