Community Kitchens · Across KwaZulu-Natal
Local Names. Local Streets. One Food Rescue Network.
A network is a statistic. The names, the places and the people running them are the proof.
Every partner on this page is led by someone from the community it feeds. Some are pastors. Some are retired people with a bakkie and a calling. Some are teachers who opened their own homes. They know their neighbourhoods, and they know who in their street is going without this week.
Missions Ablaze gives them food, rescued every weekday from Shoprite Checkers, Spar, Woolworths, Food Lover's Market and Food Forward SA. They give their community the care.
That is the model. Here are the people.
The network
Every Partner. Every Area. Every Serving Day.
Ark of the Covenant
Pastor Musa was working as a security guard at a local school in 2011 when he saw how many people around him were going hungry. He fed them out of his own pocket until 2014. In 2024 he came to Missions Ablaze so he could reach further. He now supplies parcels to around 46 adults and meals to 62 children, and he still works at the school. His church has been granted land and is raising funds to build a shelter so they can start cooking regularly.
108
Parcels for adults, meals for children
Monday
House of Life
The largest partner in the network. Petra has run House of Life in the Durban CBD for many years, serving cooked meals and food parcels to people in need across the inner city, alongside a Christian service, meetings and counselling every single day. Themba, her right hand man, collects from Missions Ablaze each week. They have been part of the network for over 20 years and feed between 200 and 300 people a day.
240
Fed in the inner city, every day
Every day
Ingwe Children's Home
Tracy opened the Ingwe feeding programme in 2007 and the Children's Home in 2011. 18 children rescued from neglect, abuse and abandonment live in the home, so the kitchen runs every day. "By improving their nutrition and health, they have a better chance to change the downward spiral of their lives." When there is extra, Ingwe sends parcels to the wider community.
18
Children kept safe while parents work
Monday to Friday
Khylani Home of Community Service
A retired man with a bakkie. In 2019 a school principal asked him to collect from Missions Ablaze for the children and the community she was feeding. During Covid she passed away, and he took over her round. He formalised the NPO in 2023. Every Wednesday he collects and makes up parcels for 28 families, 60 adults and 35 children in Hambanathi.
95
Across 28 households
Wednesday
Life Span Church
Topisi has been a pastor his whole adult life and has collected from Missions Ablaze for about 20 years. By the time his red van leaves Shakaskraal in the morning, the elderly of the community are already lining up for the food parcels they will receive later that day. He reaches around 71 of them every week.
71
Elderly fed every week
Thursday
Mahlabathini Islamic Centre
Hussen runs an after-school care centre at the Mahlabathini Islamic Centre. The children in his care are fed 3 times a week, and parents come to the centre to collect food parcels for their households. His daughter Monica helps with the collection and works with the children.
23
Children fed 3 times a week
Redcliff Disable Empowerment Organisation
22 years serving people living with disabilities. His soup kitchen cooks for 47 neighbours 3 times a week, works hand in hand with local social workers, and raises funds to put people in wheelchairs.
47
Fed weekly
Monday / Wednesday / Friday
Seeds and Loaves of Bread
23 years feeding his community, one of the network's longest partnerships. His family cooks what Missions Ablaze has rescued and serves an average of 144 adults and 61 children a hot meal with bread, fruit and clothes to take home. He receives food from the mission and drives for it at weekends. Community, not dependency.
205
Hot meals off one family stove
Wednesday
Siyabambisana Feeding
Evalina started looking after 2 children in 2000. 26 years on, 15 children live in her home and another 20 come every weekday. They are off the streets, looked after and fed, and their parents know they are safe during the day. She feeds her Cottonlands community out of the same kitchen.
56
Fed 5 days a week
Monday to Friday
Snothando Organisation
Snothando began in 2011 with 3 foster children. "We started feeding ten people and now it's over 80 as the need has grown." Missions Ablaze supplied their daily bread in the early days. Today they feed an average of 63 adults and 41 children, 3 times a week.
104
Fed 3 times a week
Tuesday / Friday / Sunday
Tafara Center
After the 2022 floods Bonnie was asked to house a destitute family in an empty house she owns, and she started collecting food from Missions Ablaze for them. A Foundation Level school teacher, she opened a homework centre in her own home so the children of the community had somewhere safe to be in the afternoon. She now has 8 adults and around 20 children in her care, and feeds them every day.
29
In Bonnie’s care, every day
Every day
Tongaat Street Feeding
The feeding Missions Ablaze runs directly. Crates of bread and fruit go out with a pot of soup, and the numbers have climbed steadily through the winter, from 122 adults in early July to 208 by mid-August. Children began arriving in the middle of July and now come every week.
158
Fed at our own community
6 days a week
Zamokuhle Creche
Cecilia and a group of women have run the Zamokuhle pre-school creche since 1983, a safe place for small children while their parents work or look for work and their older brothers and sisters are at school. She looks after 50 children. Missions Ablaze has supplied a hot meal and food every week since 1995, its first year, and replaced the creche roof in 2024.
50
Children kept safe while parents work
Monday to Friday
Amava Community
Millicent runs Amava Community in Groutville, cooking for thirty adults and fifteen children every Tuesday.
45
Fed weekly
Tuesday
Door of Hope
Every week Shantal's Door of Hope serves an average of 49 adults and 43 children in Buffelsdale.
92
Adults and children in Buffelsdale
Friday and Saturday
Jump Youth Mission
Valerie Pillay's Jump Youth Mission is a live-in operation in Buffelsdraai, so the kitchen runs every day. It collects from Missions Ablaze and reaches an average of 40 adults and 40 children each time.
80
Adults and children in Buffelsdraai
Every day
Beyond the kitchens
Home Feeding. 6 Households. Every Day.
Missions Ablaze runs a home feeding programme for 6 households, delivered daily, with fresh and dry supplies restocked every 2 weeks to a month. Fed by name, at their door.
It is quiet, it is slow, and it has been running for years.
Support the network
Fund the Work That Keeps Them All Open.
The food is free. The running costs are what we need partners for.
Give monthly
From $25 / R500 a month. It goes into the operation that supplies every partner, not to one kitchen.
Become a Monthly PartnerPartner as a company
Companies can cover a full day of the mission's operations, collection included.
Corporate PartnershipsSend goods
Utensils, cleaning supplies, gas cylinders, children's clothing.
In-Kind DonationsVolunteer at a kitchen
A day, a weekend, or full time. No special skills required.
Join Our Team
Churches have their own path: Church Partnerships.
Trust IT 2049/2000 · NPO 019-028 · PBO 930020955 · Section 18A approved
