Wonderbag in soup kitchens
“Recipe for change” – Sarah Collins, founder of Natural Balance Global, Wonderbag
For the last few weeks I have spent days in Ocean View and Masiphumelele collaborating with inspiring people that are volunteering endless hours of work to make a change in lives of their own community and their neighbourhoods during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Today some of the Ocean View community members, Kommetjie CAN and the Wonderbag team met to talk about efficient ways of cooking food. Soup kitchens in communities like Ocean View, Masiphumelele and Red Hill, cook daily for thousands of people in pot sizes up to 60 litres. Each soup kitchen provides mostly two meals per day and often needs to cook one pot of rice and one pot of stew for one meal time, in Ocean View alone there are 46 soup kitchens, full story about soup kitchens in my previous blog South Peninsula Soup Kitchens . This task is not only time consuming for the families, it also uses valuable electricity or gas.
The Wonderbag is a simple, foam insulated slow cooker. After a few minutes of brining the pot of food to boil, the pot is placed into the Wonderbag and left to continue cooking on its own. The bag keeps heat for up to 12 hours and the food can not burn. Because the pot is taken of the stove within few minutes, cooking with Wonderbag reduces by 70% the amount of wood, charcoal, gas and electricity. This system also saves time and labour. Cooking rice conventionally can take up to 30 minutes of stirring and adding extra water. If combining few minutes to bring the pot to boil and then placing it into the Wonderbag for an additional 30min, the rice will be cooked within 45minutes on its own. This process will save considerable amount of water, time and fuel. The food can be cooked over night and ready for breakfast meals, leaving more time to prepare the second meal of the day, making life time efficient and affordable for the volunteers feeding the communities.
The Wonderbag COVID-19 response:
“The Wonderbag Factory has been deemed an essential service to sew face masks to help prevent the spread of Covid-19. Masks are an important part of our Recepie4ResilienceKits currently being distributed to families in need. Our kits include a Wonderbag, food, soap, hygiene supplies and face masks. Join us in our efforts to keep everyone in Africa fed and healthy.”
Consider donating a Wonderbag to a soup kitchen:
Ocean View Mosque: email noorulislamovs@gmail.com or call Tasliem Manuel 0828787577
Credits:
Thank you Wonderbag, Kommetjie CAN and Ocean View community for sharing this inspiring story and participating in the photoshoot with Love & Rockets
Quotes: Wonderbag
Article: Kristina Stojiljkovic
Photography: Kristina Stojilkovic