The national regulations that are currently in place to help reduce the spread of Covid-19 prevent us from having our clients sit and eat together in the dining rooms. Instead, we organise a queue outside of a maximum of 50 people at a time, distancing themselves from each other by 1.5 meters, and serve the daily meal in take-away containers. Through donations, we have been able to provide everyone with face masks, and we also maintain a sanitiser station outside the premises.
Inside, all our staff maintain the strictest levels of hygiene at all times, and this also applies to our volunteers and visitors. For more details, please see our updated Covid-19 Management Strategy.
Although it is strange for us to see our beloved dining rooms empty of people enjoying a meal and socialising, they are not standing empty. They currently serve as a collection and distribution point for the donations and deliveries of food that come in to be made up as food parcels for at-risk groups in various parts of Cape Town. Some of these are informal micro-groups of homeless people, others are at temporary shelters or are residents of poorer areas where unemployment due to the lockdown hit hard.