A local charity organisation is currently donating jars of dried soup ingredients to assist several local organisations that help families in need.
This was according to Hette-Lize Marshall, the founder of The Little I Can Do, the charity organisation behind the Jars of Hope project. Marshall’s organisation has called for donations of second-hand items that are sold or donated to local organisations that assist those in need.
The dried ingredients in each of the Jars of Hope consist of rice, lentils, soup mix, one packet of soup powder and 2 stock cubes. PHOTO: Tina Ddamulira
Who are the recipients?
The Kayamandi-based Love to Give is one of the recipient organisations of the project. Love to Give helps unemployed people and feeds 2 000 children daily, according to Karen Ross, the sustainable livelihoods manager at Love to Give.
The organisation currently gives Jars of Hope to families “in cases where a [monthly] food parcel [is] not lasting,” said Ross.
Another recipient organisation is Single Parents Helping Hands. It supplies children with toiletries and assists single mothers with their babies, according Trudie de Ville-Coetzee who is the founder.
“Jars of Hope can help a mom buy electricity because she has food,” said De Ville-Coetzee.
To make Jars of Hope more accessible to its local recipients, whose first language is not necessarily English, the instructions on the labels are also in Afrikaans and Xhosa, according to Marshall.
“It shows a sign of respect and that you have made an effort,” she added
Funding
Marshall explained that she sells second-hand items on her Facebook page throughout the year, and uses the proceeds to purchase the dry ingredients.
“The dry ingredients cost R16 per jar,” according to Marshall.
Some of her second-hand items are also sold on her behalf by people who sell second-hand goods for a living on consignment.
“Because it is for a charity, they take very little for themselves, although I do insist that they take something that makes our relationship sustainable,” said Marshall.
A few times a year Marshall, with the help of two friends, also sells her items at the Saturday Middelvlei market.
“I have always been the only charity pop shop selling second-hand goods, so I have been fortunate [ in making sales],” said Marshall.
There is a ‘huge’ market for second-hand quality goods, said Hette-Lize Marshall, founder of The Little I Can Do. “The whole movement of thrifting proves it,” she said. PHOTO: Supplied/ The Little I Can Do Facebook page
The jars are donated by residents in the Stellenbosch area “who respond to the requests I post on The Little I Can Do Facebook page,” she added.
Bridging the gap
Last year, during the hard lockdown, Jars of Hope became one of several projects under Marshall’s initiative, The Little I Can Do. It was the solution to the issue of families who were applying for food parcels for the first time, but could not receive the parcels immediately due to the administration required to arrange the parcels, said Marshall.
“If you have an organisation that helps people with food parcels, then people very often come to you when they are already desperate. They want something they can eat now,” explained Marshall.
The soup jars could be given to families whilst they waited for their food parcels, according to Marshall.
Hette-Lize Marshall is the founder of the charity organisation, The Little I Can Do, that “calls” for donations of second hand items that are sold or donated to organisations that assist those in need. “I help people who help people,” said Marshall. PHOTO: Tina Ddamulira