“Feeding the Hunger…and Pursuing the Thirst”

Food at last!!

The first food distribution day of each delegation trip is always a special one—and this first experience for our 2026 group was no different.

Our day began as we gave hand massages and back rubs to some of the community elders at JL Zwane Church in Gugulethu.

But before long, we heard the arrival of the truck that carried the food for us to unload.

Friday marked the first of the four quarterly distributions of food in this community this year.

So, the 15 of us got busy…forming the assembly line and teamed with local community members to move the rice, corn, flour, beans, sugar, cooking oil, frozen chicken, and the local grain called “samp”. We spent more than an hour stacking the food, but it felt like the time went very quickly.

After the final check to make sure that each of the recipients’ stacks of food was complete, those one hundred and sixteen families lined up when their names were called to pick up this life-sustaining food.

The residents use the shopping carts or muscle power to carry their parcels outside of the church and load them into the vehicles shared by communities or drivers hired to take the food to their homes.

For 26 years now, Arm in Arm in Africa has provided the ingredients for these desperately-needed meals to Gugulethu (and other communities). These are the first of the approximately 2000 stacks of food that we will fund and distribute this year. It may seem hard to imagine, but this food will run out long before the next three months are over. Most families say this will last one to two months—depending on the size of their families. This is always such a fulfilling day… as our travelers see smiles on the faces of these appreciative community residents as they drive away.

And the second part of the day, we transitioned from satisfying hunger… to embracing “thirst”!

Some of you may be aware that Mother Teresa’s motto for her facilities around the world is “I Thirst”.

Today we visited the Missionaries of Charity location in the Khayelitsha Township.

Here we got the opportunity to have conversations with and to massage these residents—many of whom are dealing with the physical and emotional aspects of living with significant disabilities.

It is emotional knowing that the residents build up quite a bit of energy to communicate with us as best they can…

And we are also proud to say that we know we will continue to check on each year—something that many of their families no longer do.

We are already looking forward to the next delegation coming back this time next year.

Our Arm in Arm in Africa travelers and community leaders who joined us, shared our “ until next year” goodbyes. We took one last opportunity to pose with some of the committed nuns who have traveled here from around the world to care for this inspiring group of residents.