Arthur Greene
In 2011 Carmen started preparing meals three times a week for learners at a local school in Belhar outside Cape Town.
Today, she provides breakfast and lunch everyday to over 18,000 children across the country.
“I have seen first-hand how humbling hunger can be,” she told Scrolla.Africa.
When the pandemic struck, Carmen Stevens Wines, through their UK merchant, Naked Wines, appealed to their customers to give up their weekly takeaways and donate the savings to Carmen’s foundation – and the customers responded.
“Do with some good old beans on toast instead,” they encouraged their angels.
“I gave up ordering in a nice steak dinner from my local pub on a Friday night,” said a willing wine drinker.
In a year they raised more than £800,000, about R16.5 million.
That has translated into 1,622,731 meals to 41,363 hungry mouths across 33 communities.
Carmen moved to Belhar when she was 13, a place she described as a gangster’s paradise. Every day she saw many children going an entire day without anything to eat.
After establishing a winery in Stellenbosch she soon set up the Carmen Stevens Foundation.
“I funded the project myself. I came from that very same community and I knew there was a need,” Carmen told Scrolla.Africa.
Carmen Stevens Wines, the first to be 100% black-owned, has grown into a celebrated winery in the country, winning awards year upon year.
As the winery grew, so did the foundation.
By 2019 it was supplying meals to 53 schools across 25 communities every day and, said Carmen, it had an instant impact on the children’s behaviour and development.
But when the pandemic hit in 2020, the effects on the country’s poorest communities were devastating. The foundation shifted its focus from schools to soup kitchens.
“Both children and adults needed food. We partnered with community kitchens that had the capability to prepare meals,” Carmen said.
“When you see grown men lining up for a plate of food for the child on their arm it tells a million truths.”
Picture source: @CuisineNoirMag
