#Melville

This is a quick post to announce the Melville Food Program, which I’ve blogged about many times during lockdown (see here and here and here), did its last large-scale food parcel distribution at Heritage Baptist Church today. This amazing group of volunteers, led by Tanya and Sean Gardiner, have given out more than 5,400 food parcels (around 300,000 total meals) to Melville area residents over the past four months.

Today, the South African restaurant industry participated in a nationwide demonstration called “One Million Seats in the Streets”, to protest the government’s treatment of the hospitality sector during the COVID-19 lockdown. The hashtag for the movement is #JobsSaveLives.

This morning I visited the Melville food parcel program for the first time in two weeks, and things have changed significantly at the distribution. The entire operation has been moved outside the church, due to the recent surge in coronavirus cases, and the volunteers are now wearing bright red hazmat suits.

It’s Day 98 of the South African lockdown, which I literally cannot believe. Earlier today I suddenly thought back to my Day 9 post, when I said it felt like Day 900 and questioned my decision to blog every day of lockdown because I suspected it might last longer than 21 days. Ha! Hahahaha!

The Melville Cat normally speaks for himself on this blog. But today, for some reason, I feel like speaking for the two of us.

I didn’t choose Smokey as a pet – he chose me. He had a perfectly good home already, with a wonderful lady who has become a dear friend. But for some reason Smokey decided his place was with me, and there was nothing anyone could do about it.

This morning I got up early and went to take photos at the Melville food parcel program, as I always do on Thursday mornings. I arrived at the church around 6:30. Due to another commitment, I had to leave at 7:30. At 7:25, I met Josaya.