Love Looks Like Something — Nav Component
LOVE
Looks Like Something

The art of love is God at work through you

Isaiah 58:10

If you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.

Faith · Action · Community

Who We Are

We are a faith-based ministry committed to showing the love of Christ through real, practical, hands-on acts of care and by building strong, lasting relationships.

From feeding families and providing clothing, to supporting those in crisis, doing outreach work, and standing beside the vulnerable — to offering discipleship and support. Everything we do is rooted in love, hope, dignity, and faith.

Our heart is Golden Valley, Blanco — where we actively serve people who are unseen, unheard, and forgotten. Meeting them where they are and walking with them through their challenges while building trust, connection, and hope.

Love must be more than words.
Love takes action. Love shows up. Love works.
Love looks like something.

Golden Valley community
Golden Valley · Blanco · George
Founded
2020
Our first meal
served in Golden Valley
Every Day
600–700
Children fed
daily, without fail
Estimated
1M+
Meals served
since 2020
Initiatives
8
Active programmes
running simultaneously
Our Heart
1
Community. Golden Valley.
Where God placed us.
The People Behind the Work

Meet the Team

Love Looks Like Something is led by women who responded to a calling and never looked back. Their presence in Golden Valley is daily, constant, and deeply personal.

Alette Marais
Founder & Director

Alette is the founder of Love Looks Like Something — a woman whose response to God's call began with something as simple as making sandwiches for hungry children in Golden Valley in 2020. What she started in obedience, God multiplied in ways she could not have imagined. Every meal served, every child reached, and every life touched carries the fingerprint of her faithfulness. Alette leads the ministry with a mother's heart and a shepherd's presence.

Abby Marais
Operations & Youth

Abby grew up watching her mother love a community into something more than it knew it could be. She chose to join the work — not because she had to, but because she believed in it. Abby coordinates the day-to-day operations of the soup kitchen, leads youth outreach, and is the energy behind many of the community events that bring Golden Valley together in joy and celebration.

Photo · Jeanne Erasmus
Jeanne Erasmus
Visionary & Elpida Director

Jeanne brings deep community roots and long-term vision to the foundation. As the director of Elpida — the large-scale facility project born from Love Looks Like Something's years of daily presence in Golden Valley — she is the bridge between what we do today and what we are building for tomorrow. Her work holds both the practical and the prophetic: she believes Golden Valley is meant for something more, and she is building it.

What Love Does

Our Initiatives

Soup Kitchen
Daily Care · Since 2020

Soup Kitchen

Every day — without fail since 2020 — our soup kitchen opens its doors to children and families in Golden Valley. What began as simple sandwiches made by one woman in response to a calling has grown into a daily feeding programme serving 600 to 700 children. For many of these children, this is the most reliable meal of their day. It is the reason they attend school. It is the assurance that someone sees them and cares.

School Projects
Education

School Projects

We work directly within local schools to provide resources, support, and a sense of belonging for learners who struggle to keep up. From stationery drives to classroom projects, our school initiative is about removing the barriers that stand between a child and their education — one project, one classroom, one child at a time.

Christmas Party
Celebration

Christmas Party

Every child deserves to experience joy. Our annual Christmas Party brings the community together in celebration — with food, gifts, music, and laughter for children who may have very little else to look forward to during the festive season. It is more than a party. It is a declaration that these children are seen, valued, and loved.

Education Assistance
Growth

Education Assistance

We walk with families through the practical side of schooling — helping to enrol children who have fallen through the cracks, sourcing uniforms, covering school fees, and providing tutoring support. Education is the longest bridge out of poverty, and we are committed to helping children cross it.

Discipleship
Faith

Discipleship

Our discipleship work is at the heart of everything we do. Through weekly Bible studies, prayer groups, and one-on-one mentorship, we walk alongside people as they discover faith, build spiritual foundations, and find a community that supports them. We believe that lasting transformation is both practical and spiritual — and discipleship is where those two things meet.

Outreach
Community

Outreach

We go to where people are. Our outreach team conducts regular home visits, street walks, and community days — building relationships with families, identifying needs before they become crises, and bringing practical support directly to those who are least likely to ask for it. Presence is the beginning of trust.

Elderly
Dignity

Elderly

The elderly in Golden Valley are among the most vulnerable and most overlooked. We visit, we listen, we provide, and we sit with those who carry years of hardship and are often entirely alone. Our work with the elderly is a quiet act of honouring the dignity that poverty and neglect can strip away — reminding them that they have not been forgotten.

Community Uplifting
Restoration

Community Uplifting

Beyond individual care, we invest in the fabric of the community itself — creating safe spaces, facilitating skills development, and supporting families to break cycles of poverty. We believe that Golden Valley has the resilience to rebuild, and we are committed to being a consistent, trusted presence as that process unfolds.

One life at a time — this is how a community changes.

Our Direction

Our Vision

To see communities transformed by the love of Christ through practical care, restored dignity, and renewed hope.

Why Golden Valley?

Golden Valley is a community rich in resilience but deeply affected by poverty, unemployment, abuse, and generational trauma. Many families face daily struggles for food, safety, and stability. Children are often forced to grow up too quickly, carrying responsibilities and fears far beyond their years.

We chose Golden Valley because this is where the need is urgent and the voices are unheard. Here, a single act of kindness can mean the difference between despair and hope.

We believe that lasting change begins where people are seen, valued, and supported consistently. Here is where God placed our hearts.

Rooted in Purpose

Our Mission

Feeding the hungry. Clothing the needy. Supporting families in crisis. Sharing the Gospel through prayer, outreach, and discipleship. We walk alongside people, believing that true transformation happens when hearts, minds, and lives are restored.

Challenges

  • Widespread child hunger and food insecurity
  • Children not enrolled in school or far behind academically
  • High levels of abuse, neglect, and trauma
  • Lack of safe spaces, guidance, and spiritual support
  • Families trapped in cycles of poverty and hopelessness

Our Response

  • Daily meals through our soup kitchen
  • Clothing, school uniforms, and basic necessities
  • Educational support, tutoring, and school enrolment assistance
  • Weekly Bible studies, prayer groups, and discipleship
  • Home visits, counselling, and community outreach

Outcomes

  • Children are fed daily
  • Improved school attendance and learning progress
  • Children gaining confidence, structure, and hope
  • Families feeling supported and no longer alone
  • Lives transformed through faith, dignity, and care
From Hunger to Hope
Impact Stories

From Hunger to Hope

600–700 Children
fed every day

What began as a simple sandwich for a hungry child in 2020 has grown into a daily feeding programme serving 600 to 700 children across Golden Valley. For many, this meal is the reason they attend school — and the assurance that someone cares.

Over five years of unbroken, daily service, we estimate that more than one million meals have been placed in the hands of children who needed them most. Every portion represents a family seen. A child valued. A community beginning to believe that change is possible.

James 2:15–17 — "If a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food... but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?"

The Next Chapter

From a soup kitchen
to something that lasts forever.

Love Looks Like Something is the founding ministry behind Elpida — a large-scale vision to build permanent, purpose-built facilities in Golden Valley that will serve this community for generations.

Five years of daily presence taught us what this community truly needs to flourish. A daily meal sustains life. But a school, a trauma centre, counselling facilities, and sports grounds can transform it. That is what Elpida is building.

The soup kitchen was the seed. Elpida is the harvest we are believing for.

Schools & Educational Facilities
Trauma Centre & Counselling Services
Sports & Recreation Facilities
Community Hub & Skills Development
Learn more about Elpida

Elpida — The Vision in Numbers

5+
Years of
proof of need
1M+
Meals served
since 2020
4
Facility
types planned
Generations
this will serve

Elpida (Greek: ελπίδα) — Hope. A name that carries the promise of what Golden Valley is becoming.

Get Involved

How Can You Help?

Every contribution — whether of time, resources, or prayer — makes a real difference in Golden Valley. Your generosity directly funds the daily work of feeding, educating, and walking alongside the people of this community.

We are an NPO and rely entirely on the support of individuals and organisations who believe that love must be more than words.

R150 / month
Feeds two children for 30 days
R500 / month
Supports a family with schooling
R1 500 / month
Funds our soup kitchen entirely for a day

Banking Details

Account holderLove Looks Like Something
BankNedbank
Account number1234272385
Account typeCurrent Account
Branch code198765
Swift codeNEDSZAJJ

NPO numberAPPL25-04255

Love Looks Like Something is a registered NPO (APPL25-04255). Please use your name as payment reference. For a donation certificate or more information, contact us at admin@lovelookslikesomething.co.za