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Festive dinner (and dishes) for 300

28 Dec 2015

On Christmas Eve, 82-year-old Eleanor Bremner washed more than 300 plates, an assortment of cutlery and the considerable pile of pots and pans used to feed the homeless of Durban's inner city.

Image source: www.nkosinathi.org.za

This was nothing out of the ordinary for the long-serving volunteer, who has been part of the Nkosinathi Project, an initiative of Emmanuel Cathedral, since its inception 12 years ago.

To prepare and serve food for approximately 300 people four times a week, the centre relies on 10 to 12 committed volunteers; some come from the ranks of the homeless and others from local religious communities.

Early this year the project relocated next door to the new Denis Hurley Centre.

"Once we moved the feeding of the homeless into the centre, we were able to upscale both in terms of numbers and in regard to the quality of the food," said the centre's director Raymond Perrier.

The Nkosinathi Project also offers shower and laundry facilities, a counselling service and drug rehabilitation.

Bremner has been a parishioner at Emmanuel Cathedral since she moved to Durban from Johannesburg more than 50 years ago.

"In the beginning I would come every day to help. Now I come two or three times a week, usually a Tuesday and a Thursday. I don't come on a Sunday," said Bremner.

For the past couple of years Bremner has been the official dishwasher. "I can't move fast but I can stand and wash, I can do the job. Before I did the dishes I did the tidying up and the cleaning, never the cooking. Come to think of it," said the mother of two sons, beaming, "I have been a cleaner all my life."

The former seamstress is very proud of her commitment to getting things spic-and-span. She was, she said, given an award by the late Durban mayor Mike Lipschitz for cleaning up the suburb of Wentworth.

"You see the dirt all around here?" she said, pointing to the littered streets in front of the centre. "Me and a team, we went around cleaning Wentworth when it was as bad as this. We also took part in 'Adopt a Spot'. My children always said I spent more time on the street than in my home."

Bremner has no plans to stop working for the needy. "I will carry on for as long I want to. I always tell my sons, 'I am still your mother and you can't tell me what to do.' I don't mince my words with anyone. I say to the ladies here, 'We are here to serve, these people sit for hours in the rain or in the sun and they deserve a big plate of food.'"

Source: Sunday Times

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