GEORGE NEWS - Georgians displayed extraordinary generosity of spirit towards distressed Knysna residents during the disastrous June fires, managing to pull off some remarkable feats. One such achievement was that, for a whole week, every firefighter was provided with a substantial warm meal - made in George.
Jeanette and Mars van der Colff run George Super Kitchen, a mass production food kitchen in Parkdene that serve the community.
When the fires broke out, they unexpectedly found themselves heading up a logistically complicated effort to provide 1 000 warm meals each day, cooked in the kitchen and transported to the tent camp in the heart of Knysna where out-of-town fire fighters were accommodated.
This was orchestrated with the help of many individual volunteers (moms who pitched in) and organisations, including Pick n Pay.
At a lunch held at the kitchen on Thursday 27 July to thank all the volunteers involved in this outreach, the van der Colffs related how the project began spontaneously through social media. "It all started with three simple Whats App messages sent to my mom's praying group on 7 June.
An outreach programme group and class group asked for donations to enable us to make food for the fire victims.
Things went so well during the emergency food outreach which started when the fires raged in Knysna that Rotarians and George Super Kitchen owners want to start a food bank. Seen at a thank-you lunch, from left, are Mars van der Colff, George Rotarian President Simon Swan, Donald Goldfain, Rotary Commercial Services Director and Jeanette van der Colff of the George Super Kitchen.
An hour after those messages went out, people walked into the kitchen with meat, vegetables and ingredients that went into the first 1 000 meals that we had available for people that needed food," said Jeanette.
"And so our amazing journey started that ended up with us supplying 1 000 warm meals per day to firemen and emergency teams based at Loerie Park in Knysna. And we are still continuing the journey to supply meals to the firemen. They are helping to rebuild Knysna by planting trees and securing the top soil to prevent another disaster, mud slides."
During a get-together last week Thursday, volunteers were thanked for their help in preparing 1 000 meals per day and distributing them to firefighters in Knysna.
Food Bank
Jeanette also announced that they are in the process of working with Rotary, Lions and Eden Disaster Management to establish an emergency food bank.
Rotarians present at the lunch expressed their keenness to be part of a movement to ensure that there is food that can be readily dispatched at a moment's notice in case of disasters, be it floods, drought or fire.
ARTICLE & PHOTOS: PAULINE LOURENS, GEORGE HERALD JOURNALIST
'We bring you the latest George, Garden Route news'
