Matilda Meyer is a 47-year-old Good Samaritan from Promosa in Potchefstroom who provides food for the needy after she learnt to be charitable from her mother who used to help her poorer neighbours.
She started the charitable initiative in 2014, a year after her mother died with the goal of giving everyone who was hungry something to eat in her honour. She said her mother was an orphan and she created a family wherever she went.
“We used to come with the children home, and my mother used to cook a lot, and she believed that people should always leave her house with a full stomach, and my mother was this person who used to love children and elderly people.”
Meyer said that made her realise her destiny. “I felt like I wanted to be like my mother in every way; I could see the passion that she has for people but she got ill in 2012, and from there it just went downhill,” she said.
Meyer feeds those in need from Monday to Friday using her own resources. But the local supermarket allows her to collect leftovers thrice a week.
The residents line up outside Meyer’s four-room house she shares with her son who has a disability and they patiently wait their turn to be served a meal
“Stay on the line; you’re all going to get it. Please put some more bread on this child’s plate; it’s too little,” she told a neighbor who helped her dish the meals.
Meyer’s quest to feed the needy started when she was driving past a dumping area and saw two young children scavenging for food.
“It really broke my heart to see children who are really struggling; I asked them what they were doing, and I saw them looking into a tin, I think it was a fish tin, looking for something to eat.
“I took them away from it, put them in my car, drove them home, and fed them, and you could see these children were starving. Then I made it a point to continue feeding others.
“It’s nice to go to bed at night knowing that at least I did something good and that I helped a child this evening,” she said.
