This week, our ‘Love Letter’ brings stories from Gauteng where Yolanda Jones, our Programme Director, spent the week visiting preschools to understand the challenges, and how we can best support the region. Her story is honest, heartfelt and inspiring.
“At Ladles of Love, we believe in the power of food to transform lives. Through the Nourish Our Children programme, we are not just feeding kids – we are nourishing their futures, offering them a chance to grow, learn and thrive in a world that often forgets them.
That statement becomes even more real to me when I visit the centres we support. On paper, it may sound adream or a vision for an organisation – but then you witness it. You see the pain in a mother’s eyes as she explains that her child, living with a disability, has no safe space to be nurtured. Then you learn that she has opened an inclusive centre for children with disabilities, even though most of the parents cannot afford to pay for the service. Still, she takes care of them. That broke my heart. But what stays with me the most, is how their pain has been transformed into courage and resilience.
That statement becomes even more real to me when I visit the centres we support. On paper, it may sound adream or a vision for an organisation – but then you witness it.
You see the pain in a mother’s eyes as she explains that her child, living with a disability, has no safe space to be nurtured. Then you learn that she has opened an inclusive centre for children with disabilities, even though most of the parents cannot afford to pay for the service. Still, she takes care of them. That broke my heart. But what stays with me the most, is how their pain has been transformed into courage and resilience.
The next centre I visited serves as a preschool by day and a home after hours, where children as young as two excitedly point out shapes, colours, fruits and vegetables. They are thriving and reaching their milestones – all because someone intervened after they had either been discarded in a garbage bin or left on a stoep. This filled my heart with hope, but also with a deep ache for these little ones who may never know their biological parents. Yet someone is there, caring for them as if they were their own.
In the heart of Johannesburg, after visiting our centres in communities from Rosettenville to Alexandra, LaRochelle to Diepsloot and Soweto – places steeped in history and struggle, where giants like Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu once stood for justice and equality – we carry their legacy forward. Mandela and Tutu taught us that lasting change begins with the children. It begins with making sure they have what they need to thrive: access to education, opportunity, and above all, proper nourishment. Their lives were devoted to lifting others up, and we continue that work – one meal at a time.
In the communities we serve, the reality is heartbreaking. There is a child whose physical disability is so severe that his head is twice the size of the rest of his body. Another, 5 years old, appears no older than two as a result of stunting. Many children suffer from malnutrition, stunting, and wasting. Some are underweight, while others face the growing challenge of being overweight – a consequence of limited access to balanced, nutritious food.
The power to change this is now in our hands. By providing two nutritious meals a day and a safe space for learning and growth, we are helping to rewrite the story. Their future need not be defined by the hardships they face at home. These children spend just two days a week in their home environments, but five days with us – and we are using every opportunity to plant seeds of love and hope for a better future.
We are determined to change their story.
What we do – providing nutritious food and support – is about more than feeding bodies. It is about nourishing hope, love and dignity. In those moments, I was reminded that we are not merely addressing a need, but sparking a ripple of transformation that can span entire communities. This work matters. It makes a difference, even in the face of deep and persistent challenges.
This is more than a call for help. It’s a call to action – a chance for you to stand with us and be part of something greater than ourselves.
Together, we can create a future where no child goes to bed hungry, and where every child has the chance to dream, to learn, to grow and to realise their dreams.”
Join us. Stand with us. Let’s change the future of our children – one child, one meal, at a time.
With gratitude and appreciation,
Danny and the team at Ladles of Love ❤️
