J-Bay hosts community lunch to spark year of nourishment and hope

The Herald

5 days ago

While the world's top surfers took on Supertubes in the J-Bay Open, something equally powerful was stirring on land this Mandela Day; a mass gathering around shared tables, cooked with love and served with dignity.
More than 1,500 residents of Jeffreys Bay and Pellsrus came together at Pellsrus Primary School for the first-ever J-Bay Community Lunch, where a hot meal carried the weight of a much bigger dream: to feed 200 people every week for a year.
Organised during the WSL J Bay Open by The House of Mandela, the Faulkner Family Trust, and a growing coalition of local churches, artists, surf leaders, and residents, the lunch was a call to action, and a grassroots tribute to Madiba's spirit of ubuntu: 'I am because we are.'
Rooted in the philosophy of umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu — a person is a person through other people, the gathering emphasised that true strength lies in community.
'Food grown, cooked, and shared by communities builds lasting bonds more than anything else,' said Kweku Mandela-Amuah, event director and grandson of Nelson Mandela. 'Here, we honour the mothers' recipes, the farmers' soil, and the shared responsibility to care for one another, as we always have.'
At the heart of the experience was home-grown flavour and soul: local gogos who cooked alongside guest chef Hardy McQueen; schoolchildren performed and shared stories; and artists like YoungstaCPT, DJ Doowap, and Don Delicious brought the music.
The lunch was just a start. In a province where one in four households face food insecurity, plans are already in motion to transform the moment into a sustainable feeding programme (at just R5 a meal) powered by local kitchens, rotating chefs, and a growing volunteer network — all fuelled by the values of ubuntu.
'When we break bread together, we break barriers too. This is not charity, it's reciprocal care,' said professional surfer and organiser Joshe Faulkner.