Mzukisi May

The pandemic and subsequent lockdown have had a drastic effect on the lives and livelihoods of many families and has caused an increased demand and supply of community kitchens.

One such kitchen is the Mzukisi May Community Kitchen founded and run by pensioners Linda and Mzukisi May in Extension 6 in Makhanda, Eastern Cape with a secondary location in the Enkaneni squatter camp. 

The kitchen, like many others, was started around the time that lockdown started in 2020 after the founders noticed an increased need for communal aid as they were noticing a lot more people coming to them asking for help.

The pensioners decided to start out of their own pockets which is very taxing on their pockets – as they are using their pension – but say that donations are a great help. They do need more donations, and more recurring and stable donations, due to the large numbers of people they give aid to.

“Here it was 140 children, 105 adults,” Linda says, looking through their records of the amount of people they have served. There are days they have served up to 300 people. 

They try to have the kitchen open twice a week but, because of the lack of funding and too few donations, they are sometimes forced to only host the kitchen once in an entire week.

They used to get regular donations from some doners but those doners have run dry too which is making it more difficult to feed people. 

They have quite innovatively found a way to feed people without the donations or the money. Mzukisi is very proud of their large veggie garden that he uses to help in their kitchen and teach other people in the community to grow to feed their own families even without income.

The pensioners are happy to accept grocery donations to the kitchen and have shared several ways to contact them.

Email: linda.may5151@gmail.com

Facebook: Mzukisi May Community Kitchen

Contact: 081 705 0050