A large kitchen tucked inside Cape Town’s Epping industrial area is doing something extraordinary every single school day… feeding 12,000 children across the Cape Flats and preparing to reach even more.
Western Cape, South Africa (09 March 2026) – Hope can sometimes be found in the most unexpected places. In this case, it starts long before sunrise, inside an industrial building in Epping, where massive cooking vats begin bubbling at 4am and a team of local residents prepares thousands of meals destined for schoolchildren across the Cape Flats.
Every school day, around 12,000 nutritious meals leave that facility and make their way to classrooms where children might otherwise sit through lessons on empty stomachs. The kitchen has already reached the milestone of 1 million meals served in its first year of operation. What makes the story even more powerful is that everything is already in place to double that number. The facility, supported by the Prem Rawat Foundation through its global Food for People programme and operated locally by the Prem Ubuntu Foundation South Africa, has the capacity to provide up to 24,000 meals every single day. The infrastructure exists, the kitchen is running, the distribution network is established… and the impact is already visible.
We sat down with Brendan McGurk, who serves on the board of the Prem Ubuntu Foundation and has been deeply involved in bringing the initiative to life in South Africa, to understand how this extraordinary project came together.
“The roots of this programme actually go back almost twenty years,” Brendan explained.
“It began after Prem Rawat visited one of the poorest regions of India in 2003 and met children whose spirit and dignity were incredible despite the hardships they faced. That moment sparked an idea that food security could change everything for a child. The Food for People programme officially launched in 2006 and since then it has grown into a global initiative that has served more than 8.5 million nutritious meals across India, Nepal, Ghana and now South Africa.”
Bringing the programme to Cape Town was not accidental. The Cape Flats remains one of the areas where poverty and violence continue to shape daily life for many families and where hunger still stands as a major obstacle to education.
“Cape Flats communities carry a heavy legacy from South Africa’s history. Many families survive on less than R3,500 a month and food insecurity is part of everyday life. Teachers told us that hunger is the single biggest barrier to learning. Children who arrive at school hungry struggle to focus, they struggle to engage, and their attendance often suffers.”
The Epping facility was chosen deliberately because of its proximity to the communities it serves. Located right on the edge of the Cape Flats, it allows meals to be prepared at scale and delivered quickly to schools every morning.
Inside the building, the operation runs like a well-orchestrated system with a deeply human heart.
“Production starts at around four in the morning,” Brendan explained.
“The kitchen team is made up largely of local residents who understand the community because they live there themselves. These are not outside professionals parachuted in. They are people who have been trained, empowered and given an opportunity to feed their neighbours’ children.”
At the centre of the operation is facility manager Colin Barends, whose own story reflects the transformation this project represents.
“Colin grew up on the Cape Flats and was once involved in gang life. Through the Peace Education Program, he found a different path, and today he manages a kitchen that feeds thousands of children every single day. His journey captures the spirit of what this programme is about… people who know the challenges firsthand now leading solutions within their own communities.”
The scale of the kitchen is impressive. Industrial cooking vats, large preparation stations and upgraded storage facilities allow the team to produce meals that are nutritionally balanced and aligned with recommended dietary standards for children. Fresh vegetables, proteins and locally sourced ingredients are used to create dishes that are both healthy and delicious.
One of the more unexpected elements behind the menu comes from a respected Cape Town culinary institution.
“The recipes were developed with the help of a chef from the Vineyard Hotel. He worked with the team to create nutritious yet appealing meals for children. We’re talking about proper food, not just basic feeding schemes. These meals are cooked with care and flavour because the goal is dignity as well as nutrition.”
Once the meals are prepared, they are packaged and transported to schools through a carefully monitored distribution system that ensures full accountability.
“Governance is a huge part of how this programme works. Every aspect of procurement, food production and distribution is audited, and the last mile is monitored so we know exactly where the meals go each day. That transparency matters for our partners and donors, but it also builds trust within the communities we serve.”
The results are already being felt in classrooms.
Teachers working with participating schools report noticeable improvements in attendance, participation and concentration among learners receiving daily meals. For many children, the school meal is the most reliable food they receive all day.
“When a child knows they will eat at school, everything changes. They arrive more consistently, they can focus on their lessons, and teachers can teach to students who are alert rather than distracted by hunger.”
The milestone numbers tell part of the story. The programme delivered its one millionth meal within the first year of operation and is now producing more than 190,000 meals a month.
But the kitchen was always designed with a bigger vision.
“At full capacity, we could produce 24,000 meals every school day. That would allow us to feed the majority of primary school children across the Cape Flats. Imagine what that means, hunger would no longer be the reason a child cannot learn.”
Reaching that capacity requires additional support from local businesses, organisations and individuals who want to invest in a proven system already delivering results.
“The infrastructure is here, the team is here, the systems are in place,” Brendan said.
“What we need now is support to sustain the ingredients, the logistics and the operational costs that allow the kitchen to run at full scale.”
For Brendan, the motivation behind the project remains simple.
“I often hear people say it’s better to give someone a fishing rod than a fish. But when you feed children consistently, you are actually helping to build the fishing rod for their future. Proper nutrition gives them the foundation to learn, grow and eventually contribute back to their communities.”
That vision is already taking shape each morning in Epping, where meals prepared before sunrise travel across the Cape Flats and land on desks where hungry learners once struggled to concentrate.
Twelve thousand meals a day is already changing lives. Twenty-four thousand could change the future of an entire generation.
*The Prem Ubuntu Foundation South Africa will be hosting a fundraiser at the Woodstock Brewery on Thursday, the 26th of March at 6:30pm. For more information, visit their website.
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This is very good this will help me feed the school’s near me.And some of the homeless people.