SOUP AND INSPIRATION: Born of hardship, driven by faith, Magda Meyer has been feeding Paarl’s hungry for 30 years

Elderly Magda Meyer uses donations and surplus food to feed the hungry in Paarl every day. Through Magda se Sopkombuis (Magda’s Soup Kitchen), she continues to connect with people and give back to her community.

For more than 30 years Magda Meyer has run Magda se Sopkombuis or Magda’s Soup Kitchen from her home. She and her volunteers cook and distribute food parcels to those in need at three different locations in Paarl every day.

Every week her soup kitchen feeds more than 2,000 people – people she deeply identifies with since it was Meyer’s own struggle that brought her to dedicating her life to feeding others.

The now 64-year-old’s life shifted when her own family was struggling financially while her children were in primary school, Meyer says. During this difficult period she had a conversation with two pastors who taught her about the suffering of others in Chicago, Paarl. This had driven Meyer to start cooking once a week for those in need in her surrounding communities, despite not having much to eat herself, she says.

Meyer recalls walking from door-to-door selling plants in a single crate to raise money for ingredients and asking for food scraps to concoct meals in her early soup kitchen days.

The soup kitchen has no fixed menu, according to Meyer – the food cooked and distributed depends on what they receive.

Magda se Sopkombuis regularly receives food donations thanks to Meyer having built decades of connections, she says. She adds that the soup kitchen also relies on gifts of digital grocery vouchers from other individuals and organisations. Meyer and her team redeem these vouchers for food in-store.

Magda se Sopkombuis also cooks using surplus food or food that is still edible but has not been sold or has been overproduced, is slightly imperfect or does not meet strict retailer specifications. The soup kitchen receives surplus food daily through their membership with nonprofit organisation FoodForward SA, Meyer explains. FoodForward SA recovers this food from farmers, manufacturers or retailers and redistributes it to beneficiary organisations for a small monthly fee.

Meyer explains that all food is sorted and inspected to ensure the soup kitchen remains tidy and the cooked food adheres to proper health standards.

To Meyer this statement does not only apply to surplus food. Magda se Sopkombuis no longer operates from a shack on her property and has its own industrial kitchen, although she still collects many secondhand goods to keep it running.

Many of the tables they use have been recovered from a woman who planned to throw them away, she says, while the kitchen’s counter comprises bricks and a marble countertop another woman planned to throw away. Meyer also collects secondhand dishware sets which she lends to those who cannot afford to hire for events such as weddings and birthday parties. But she adds that the soup kitchen is always ready to donate their extra dishware to disaster victims, such as those whose houses have flooded or burnt down.

Meyer admits that there are days where she has no petrol to travel and cannot keep the lights on.