The Northern Cape Department of Social Development gives effect to the food for all campaign through the social protection element of our work, which makes funding available to Soup Kitchens and Drop In-Centres to operate food provision points at the province.
Currently the Department of Social Development is funding 138 Soup Kitchens throughout the province where community members can access a meal. The soup kitchens therefore respond to the needs of the poor and vulnerable households who find it difficult to respond to the shocks and stresses that threaten their livelihoods.
However, the meals need to be prepared for the poor and vulnerable and this is done by the Soup Kitchen Cooks. In the past, the cooks used to be paid from the funding provided to the soup kitchens meaning that a considerable portion of the funds were for salaries.
Therefore in order to ensure that the soup kitchens are now able to operate 5 days a week , the stipends of the Cooks will be paid directly to them from the Expanded Public Works Program and not from the funds allocated for the daily operations of the Soup Kitchens. This program is a partnership between the Department of Social Development and the Department of Roads and Public Works who will be contributing towards the payment of Stipends from their respective EPWP Budgets.
For the 2014/ 15 financial year 333 Cooks will be benefitting from a stipend of R1552,98 for a period of 7 months and increase to R1688.20 for the remaining 5 months of the financial year.
This program will be launched by the MEC for Social Development Ms Tiny Chotelo and the MEC for Roads and Public Works Mr Dawid Rooi as forth:
Venue: Ikutseng Magareng Municipality – Warrenton
Date: 30 April 2014
Time: 12h00
The media is hereby invited to attend the launch of the Soup Kitchen Cooks Program.
Manager: Communications
Department of Social Development
Cell: 079 873 0679
