For the last two weeks I have been fortunate enough to play a part in distributing 6000+ sandwiches, an assortment of eggs, oranges, and apples a week. I hear that the City Bowl has made and distributed over 300 000 sandwiches up to date. Eager hands putting jam and peanut butter on bread to be collected by Ladles of Love and distributed far and wide.
There is something very poignant for me in being part of this. The everyday simplicity of the gesture. The intimacy of it. From kichen, to distribution point, into cars and out, out, spread out, to little corners of light in our city where brave sentinels face a daily tide of hunger. And where they, the keepers of the flame, share amongst their people - their men and women, their children, and elders.
We hear stories of places where people haven't eaten for three days. Where these everyday gestures arrive like "Hail Mary's" just in time but also, seemingly, perpetually too late. It is painful to see and hear about. No doubt more painful to live. And there are days where it feels like we are up against the impossible.
And now, with many of the sandwich makers returning to some semblance of work, the daily intake of sandwiches have started to drop. But the need grows. Little kids in Joe Slovo Park, Dunoon, Atlantis, families in Maitland, Kewtown, even Witsand - all are helped this way.
I look at my role in this web of connection. Helping to co-ordinate pick-ups, advocating for beneficiaries to be considered for further aid. Seeing the pictures, hearing the stories, and reaching into the unknown for more contact to be made. Wishing the tenuous threads to take on mass, to thicken with potency and purpose and trust.
Make no mistake, someone would have filled my role. I was simply a person at a specific place, at a specific time. I am not particularly significant. But I am a particle of significance, and this work is transforming my perception of the world and what it means to belong to something bigger than myself.
Thanks to all the sandwich makers and your blessed hands. In case you don't know it - you are often a last line of defense against despair.
Keep em coming!
Get Involved and help us MAKE SANDWICHES 🥪 with many people going back to work, there has been a dip in the supply of sandwiches. These sandwiches often go to very hard-hit places. If you can and would like to, please join the Ladles Of Love Sandwich Drive
👉 https://www.ladlesoflove.org.za/covid19-food-sandwich-drive-info/