The Morgan Bay community continues to show strong solidarity with its less well-off members through the ongoing charity fund, organised by the Morgan Bay Ratepayers Association.
The fund aims to raise money in order to buy food parcels, which are then distributed to those in need.
The parcels include a number of key food items such as maize, rice, samp, cabbage, onions, milk and sugar.
“How we got to do it, was we got a hold of the community and we went around the houses, finding out if they still have work,” said Morgan Bay Hotel owner Richard Warren Smith.
“We had organised their phone numbers before the lockdown because we knew this was coming.
“These people haven’t worked in months and even if they went back to work, they’ll have to wait either a fortnight or a month before they can get any money.”
Warren Smith said they have managed to feed about 1,200 people since they started.
Initially, the Ratepayers Association put out a pledge to their members.
“What’s amazing is we got about R80,000 from that first pledge and then more started to come in,” Warren Smith said.
A number of Morgan Bay residents organised their own fundraising initiatives to help bolster the initiative.
Last month, Terry Gillham ran 50 laps in his driveway, with people sponsoring him for each lap.
“At the commencement of the lockdown, with us not being able to get down to the beaches, my wife Anne and I figured we’d do some exercise,” Gillham said.
“We normally run on the beaches and across the cliffs, but since we’re under lockdown, we decided to run up and down the driveway.
“It eventually dawned on me that I should try doing something more to raise funds for the community,” Gillham said.
By the end of May, Gillham had managed to raise over R100,000.
Another initiative was organised by the Morgan Bay Ladies, who managed to sew over 1,000 masks for residents.
“We want to keep the initiative going as long as we can because for many of these people, they would have gone out and worked during the school holidays but now no one is hiring,” said Warren Smith.
Anyone looking to donate or find out more information can contact fundraising.morganbay@gmail.com.
