Venues
Select an event venue to volunteer your time making items for small children in need.
MANDELA DAY 2025
In Cape Town, Johannesburg,
and anywhere in the World!
Cape Town
Johannesburg
Anywhere in the world
DONATION: The value of your individual ticket is R250 and this will feed a child two healthy meals a day for a month.
DURATION : To make volunteering more meaningful, we have increased the activations to two-hour time slots as follows:
1. 9am-11am / 2. 11am-1pm / 3. 1pm-3pm / 4. 3pm-5pm
ACTIVITY: The volunteering activities to choose from are designed to nourish, nurture and grow small children in need. You choose from ‘Volunteer Activation Stations’ as follows:
A-MAKE / B-CREATE / C-CRAFT / D-GROW
A Heartfelt Thank You from Ladles of Love
As we celebrate the success of our 2025 Mandela Day event, we’re filled with gratitude for the incredible support we received from our partners, sponsors, and volunteers.
For seven years, we’ve strived to create inclusive and meaningful events that embody the spirit of ubuntu. This year’s event was truly legendary, with over 20,000 hands coming together to make a difference in the lives of thousands of children in under-resourced communities.
The kindness, generosity, and passion of our supporters were palpable as we worked together to create, craft, and grow items for small children. The impact of our collective efforts has been extraordinary:
• We raised funds, food, and essential items that will nourish, nurture, and empower thousands of children.
• We’re providing two meals a day to children and teachers for months to come, improving their health, energy, and wellbeing.
Our ‘Nourish Our Children’ programme is making a tangible difference in the lives of these young ones. When you visit our beneficiary preschools, you’ll see the joy and smiles on the children’s faces, knowing where their next meal is coming from.
A Giant Thank You
To everyone who contributed to our success, we extend our deepest gratitude. Your support has brought us closer to our vision of alleviating hunger amongst all children in South Africa.
Join Us for Mandela Day 2026
We invite you to be part of our next event on Friday, 17 July 2026, at DHL Stadium and Kyalami Grand Prix Race Circuit.
Let’s work together to bring our vision to life. – Corporate bookings open on 1 November 2025.
Email Memory Mambo at Events@ladlesoflove.org.za to secure your spot. – We’re actively seeking sponsorships for our events and volunteer activation stations.
Email Alison McCutcheon at alison@ladlesoflove.org.za to explore opportunities.
Together, let’s make every day a Mandela Day for the children of South Africa.
Volunteer Activation Zones
MAKE Activation Zone
Help us make up food supplies for preschool to ensure nutritious food is served daily to small children and their teachers plus carers. You’ll layer ‘Buckets of Love’ with dry goods to make soups and stews and pack nutritious ‘Love Food’ boxes with essential groceries. For larger groups sandwich making team builds are available to spread sarmies with love.
All these items are labelled creatively by you with personal notes and wishes.
CREATE Activation Zone
Use your creativity to bring educational posters and colouring-in books to life for preschool children and teachers to support early childhood development. Underserved Educare centres battle with educational materials and the items you make will be a huge help and game changer for them.
CRAFT Activation Zone
Toys are scarce at the preschools we support and crafting a cute pillow doll with love that a child can call their own is a priceless gift. Colour, craft, stitch and tag with love these beautiful dolls for boys and girls. You can choose peace dolls or cars, taxi, jeeps and buses plus the favourite squish dolls.
GROW Activation Zone
You will create edible garden kits that keep on growing veggies that only provide nutritious food but teach the children, teachers and parents the importance of growing your own. You’ll create the containers, pack the soil and seeds and create a how to guide- all wrapped up with a message of love.
