Volunteers serve meals to unhoused persons in Cape Town's CBD as part of Ladles of Love and the Hope Exchange's festive season soup kitchen on 24 December 2025. (Photo: Tamsin Metelerkamp) 
On Christmas Eve in Cape Town, just down the road from the fire-damaged parliamentary buildings, a soup kitchen was abuzz with activity. People of all ages stood at the countertops, chopping large piles of butternut and potatoes. Huge pots bubbled on the stove. A speaker in the corner blasted upbeat music.
Every year, over the festive period, the Dignity Kitchen, run by Ladles of Love and the Hope Exchange, provides lunchtime meals to people in need. Between 15 December 2025 and 11 January 2026, volunteers are assisting the nonprofit organisations to provide more than 14,000 meals to Cape Town’s unhoused community as part of the #Feed5000 programme.
/file/attachments/orphans/Xmaslunch1_106118.jpg "Ladles of Love volunteers provide meals to unhoused persons in Green Point, Cape Town at a Christmas Day lunch. (Photo: Supplied / Ladles of Love)")
/file/attachments/orphans/Meals_753905.jpg "Meals are laid out for unhoused persons at the Ladles of Love and Hope Exchange soup kitchen in the Cape Town CBD on 24 December. (Photo: Tamsin Metelerkamp)")
/file/attachments/orphans/Foodserving2_270121.jpg "Volunteers serve meals to unhoused persons in Cape Town's CBD as part of Ladles of Love and the Hope Exchange's festive season soup kitchen on 24 December. (Photo: Tamsin Metelerkamp)")
Reflecting on the importance of the soup kitchen’s service, Ladles of Love founder Danny Diliberto said, “We live in a country with a lot of poverty. Those who have, if you want to keep your situation healthy, you can’t just take, sit back, do nothing about it and expect your world to survive... If you want your world to survive, you need to take care of the world that is not surviving. That’s what makes our country sustainable.”
Finding volunteers is not a problem, said Diliberto. On an ordinary day over the festive period, the kitchen has 15 slots for serving meals and eight for food preparation. For Christmas Day, Ladles of Love was seeking 100 volunteers to assist in serving 800 meals to unhoused persons in Green Point. Within two days, all the slots had been filled.
Daily Maverick spoke to volunteers who gave their time on 24 December to prepare food and serve meals. One volunteer, Chantal Terry, was there with her sons, Phoenix and Storm.
“We, as a family, had decided that this year, we’re not doing any Christmas gifts, and that we would actually like to take the money and time that we would have spent on gifts, and just volunteer and donate that. My two boys and I decided that we just wanted to give something back. I had a look online to see what we could do, and we found the Hope Exchange and Ladles of Love,” explained Terry.
/file/attachments/orphans/ChantalPhoenixandStorm_937352.jpg "Chantal Terry and her children, Phoenix and Storm, helped out at the Ladles of Love and Hope Exchange soup kitchen in the Cape Town CBD on 24 December. (Photo: Tamsin Metelerkamp)")
/file/attachments/orphans/JamesCivale_419159.jpg "James Civale, a young volunteer at the Ladles of Love and Hope Exchange soup kitchen, assists with food preparation on 24 December. (Photo: Tamsin Metelerkamp)")
She noted that everybody had their own story.
“I think everybody has a story, even us; we have our own story. But I think the really important thing to do is, time is so important, so being able to give back your time, money always helps. If you can, if you’re in a position to do that. And a meal — nobody should go hungry at this time of year. A meal is something very simple that we all often take for granted, and already today you can see the big difference that it makes.” DM