Joined at 58. Proof that it is never too late to answer the call.
Since 1995 · Still Burning
Your giving doesn't buy food here. It goes further.
We don't buy food. Retailers donate it. Your partnership pays for the vehicles, the diesel, and the team who move that food to a network of community partners across KwaZulu-Natal, before it reaches a landfill instead of a table.
31 years. Not with a bigger budget. With better logistics.
Join the Monthly Partnersfrom $28 / R500 per month
The food is donated. We are the logistics.
The record so far
78.9M
Meals rescued and delivered since 1995, most of it bound for a landfill instead.
31
Years of it, and every kitchen still led by someone from that street.
$0.14
Everything it takes to move one meal, because the food itself is free. We publish the sum.
The problem
The food already exists. Moving it is the hard part.
In Hambanathi, a retired man named Wiseman loads his bakkie every week and drives food to 28 families who would otherwise go without.
A school principal asked him to collect for the children she was feeding. During Covid she passed away, and he took over her round.
He was asked to drive. Nobody asked him to take over the whole thing.
Wiseman is one man closing one small gap.
The gap itself is enormous. In KwaZulu-Natal, nearly 1 in 4 households does not have enough food. That is Statistics South Africa's own figure, not ours.
The food already exists. What was missing was the machine to connect it to the people who need it.
Join the Monthly Partnersfrom $28 / R500 pm
How It Works
From a shelf to a family’s table in under a day.
Retailers donate surplus
Checkers, Spar, Woolworths, Food Lover's Market, and Food Forward SA give us their unsold, unspoiled food each week. The food is free. It always has been.
We collect and carry it
Four vehicles leave Tongaat at sunrise. This is the part your giving pays for: diesel, tyres, cold storage, the people who drive before the sun does.
Kitchens feed their own
Each kitchen is run by someone from that community: a pastor, a retired driver, a mother who started with 3 foster children.
You keep it moving
You are not buying a meal. You are keeping a kombie fuelled and a route running 6 mornings a week. The difference between a good week and a hungry one.
Our story
It started with a vision in 1995. It hasn’t stopped since.
In 1995, a man came home from a building site in Matchana, here in KwaZulu-Natal, and lay down to rest, waiting for his wife to come home from work. An ordinary evening. Then God gave him a vision.
He saw the world, a cross standing in front of it and an eagle rising over it. Above the world, a name: Missions Ablaze. Below it, four words he could not walk away from: we feed the poor.
That man was Tinus Lindeque.
He stepped out with his first wife, Meisie, 8 missionaries, 2 kombies, and 300 meals a day.
Meisie walked the first 23 years of the mission beside Tinus before she went home to be with the Lord in 2018. Brenda joined in 2021 and serves alongside Tinus today.
What we believe is simple: no one should go to bed hungry.
Faith started this work and has held it steady through every storm since. But faith-led has never meant closed off.
You do not need to share our convictions to support the work, to volunteer here, or to be fed by us.
Everyone who walks through the gate is met with the same dignity. That has been true since 1995, and it is not negotiable.
Why Trust Us
We’d rather show you the books.
We started in 1995 with eight missionaries and two kombies. We have kept going through Covid, the 2021 riots, the 2022 floods, and the 2024 tornado.
Same team. Same mission. Same address on Hospital Hill Road.
Not one rand of it buys food, because the food is donated.
Here is every cent it takes to move a meal, and you are welcome to come see it.
Trust IT 2049/2000 · NPO 019-028 · PBO 930020955 · Section 18A
Where your giving goes
Diesel$1,000
Electricity$2,220
Vehicle maintenance$420
Food$0 donated
Per meal / per month$0.14
Why give here
A direct partnership. Not another name on a statement.
If you have given to a big international charity for years and felt like a line item, this work is the opposite of that feeling. There is no head office between you and the kitchen.
You can name the community your giving reaches.
You can email the people who run it. You can drive to Tongaat and stand in it.
31 years, one town, and every partner on a map you can point to. That is what direct looks like.
Join the Monthly Partnersfrom $28 / R500 pm
More Than a Meal
The plate is where it starts, not where it ends.
Dewald came to Missions Ablaze in 2016 with nothing but a decision to stop.
Alcohol, drugs, a life he could not steer. He found discipline, then direction, then faith, then a wife named Odette he married at the mission. Today he serves the same community that took him in.
A meal answers tonight. Dignity, work, and a community that knows your name answer the years after. That is the work your partnership actually funds.
The people you partner with
You are not backing a brand. You are backing these people.
Some arrived for a day and stayed for a decade. Couples have met and married on this mission. Your partnership is what keeps them supported, fuelled, and on the road.
Gave a combined eight years here before carrying the work across the border.
I had the great honor of being able to help Tinus in a very small way for two days. He and his mission left a permanent mark on my life. I've not before or since been so touched by one man or one mission. He and his mission deserve all of God's blessings for one simple reason: he will pass it on to someone less fortunate.
We give all the glory and honour to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Truly I have met the most amazing people at Missions Ablaze. I thank God for the opportunity I had to be a helping hand there.
Oom Tinus, julle doen groot werk. Dit was 'n voorreg om vir 'n jaar saam met Missions Ablaze te werk. Baie seën op julle werk.
It's a privilege to be part of this great ministry. Glory to God, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Real people, named places
community kitchens. Real people.
Join the Monthly Partnersfrom $28 / R500 pm
Ask us anything
We expect you to be skeptical.
Every honest question a first-time donor asks, answered plainly.
To diesel, electricity, vehicle maintenance, kitchen supplies, and missionary support. Not one rand buys food, because the food is donated. Worked out per plate, moving one meal costs about $0.14.
For South African taxpayers, yes: Section 18A certificates on request. For US donors, card and PayPal gifts are welcome but only US tax-deductible when routed through a 501(c)(3) intermediary. Email us for the current path.
Annual reports are available on request, and you are welcome to email us to arrange a visit to a kitchen. We would rather you saw it than took our word for it.
People that keep us going
You’d Be in Good Company
Churches and companies have stood behind this mission for years. Your partnership joins theirs
The work doesn't pause
Keep the fire burning.
Every morning, someone gets into a kombie. Every afternoon, a kitchen opens. Every evening, a family eats. That cycle does not run on good intentions. It runs on partners, and on the conviction Tinus carried off that building site in 1995: no one should go to bed hungry.
Join the Monthly Partnersfrom $28 / R500 pm
