Service Dining Rooms serve about 250 meals daily

Today, clients pay just R2 for a nutritious plate of food, continuing the legacy of the original ‘tickey meal’ that has sustained the hungry for 90 years.

- 

The Service Dining Rooms now dish up around 250 meals each weekday.

Mr Browne said his aunt had helped people recover from the Great Depression.

Not just feeding them, but also trying to provide them with life skills and a sense of purpose,” he said.

That legacy continues today. Desiree Arendse, who lives in an abandoned building in Cape Town, said being served at the Dining Rooms allowed her to feel “normal”.

Ms Arendse has been coming for nearly 20 years.

She said that since living on the streets, she had always made sure to have the small amount needed — back then, just five cents — to pay for her meal.

Ms Syfret was a staunch Anglican, a parishioner of St Thomas’s Anglican Church in Rondebosch, and a member of the Black Sash — a South African human rights organisation formed in 1955 by a group of white women in opposition to apartheid.

They wore black sashes as a symbol of mourning for the death of constitutional rights. The group continues its work today, advocating for social justice and human rights in South Africa.

Mr Browne's sister Rachel described their aunt as a passionate woman of service. Their family owned a farm and would often supply fruit to the Dining Rooms.

“We would sit in the car when our mom dropped off goods or stopped in to visit,” she said.