JOHANNESBURG: A challenge on Mandela Day on July 18 to prepare and serve up 67,000 litres of soup to the needy resulted in 94,359 litres of soup being distributed in the ensuing days, according to organisers Chefs with Compassion.
This was more than 17,000 litres more than the previous record set up last year in the annual 67000litres Challenge for Mandela Day, which is now in its third year.
The UN has designated July 18, the birthday of prisoner-turned-president Nelson Mandela, as International Mandela Day.
South Africans engage in diverse community benefit activities around the figure 67, denoting the years of his life that Mandela spent before being freed after 27 years as a political prisoner of the white minority apartheid government to lead the country as its first democratically elected president.
Mandela passed on in 2013.
Hundreds of home cooks, chefs, corporates and communities provided nutrient-rich soup to over 37, 000 people across seven of the nine provinces of South Africa, hence it took a few days to tally the final distribution figure countrywide, said Ryan Grant on behalf of the organisers.
The project is the biggest annual community cooking initiative in South Africa in which 128 participants representing hotels, restaurants, companies, and individuals took up the challenge and got behind their stoves to cook for a cause.
Prepared in batches of between two and 12,000 litres at each venue, the soup was cooked in hotels, canteens, home kitchens and community soup kitchens before being distributed to the needy.