Last weekend, five members of the 1st Durbanville Rover Crew travelled to Ceres to prepare and serve a home-cooked lunch to The Haven Night Shelter’s residents. The outreach formed part of Rover Kaitie Rusch’s Leadership Bar Expedition, where she organised food donations before leading the initiative during a weekend expedition to the area.

“For many of us eating roast chicken, vegetables, gravy and rice is an ordinary meal. But we soon realised that for the residents at the shelter, it was something special,” explains Kaitie.

“As part of my Rover Leadership Bar I had planned an expedition to Matroosberg. Given the expedition fell on Mandela Day weekend, we decided to give back and cook a meal for the residents of the local night shelter. As we were prepping the meal we were reminded how easily we can overlook the everyday comforts in our own lives. One resident quietly shared that she usually eats beef bone stew and could not remember the last time she had chicken. Many residents returned for second helpings, while others simply enjoyed their meal in appreciative silence. I also really enjoyed the conversations we had with the residents. Listening to their stories, sharing experiences, and they were so curious to find out more about what we do!”

Sometimes the simplest things get overlooked. “The toughest part of the project was cooking with the limited resources the shelter had in their kitchen, we found about 2 knives, 4 pots, and were lucky to find a fork. We have decided to help and will be doing a kitchen utensil drive in the coming months to make it easier for the staff to cook for the residents,” continues Kaitie.

“Doing this project really made me appreciate the small things we have that others don’t. It was a small project for us, but it was a highlight for the residents. Seeing the residents enjoy something many of us take for granted reminded us that kindness doesn’t have to be big to change someone’s day. It felt great to be able to give back to them.” Fellow Rover Charles Murphy agrees: “We thoroughly enjoyed serving this community.”