Cape Town cook shows her online following how to eat well for R20
Olive Viglatzis's budget meals are popular with students, and she runs monthly food parcels for pensioners and job seekers.
Cape Town — Olivia "Olive" Viglatzis, known online as olive_foodie, has more than 100,000 followers on TikTok and 150,000 on Facebook for one simple idea: nobody should go hungry.
About four years ago she began a budget meal series from her own kitchen. She started at R40 a portion and has since challenged herself to cook balanced meals for as little as R20, usually a vegetable such as cabbage, a starch like rice and an egg or some meat. She ends each video by asking viewers to be kind, because this might be someone's only meal of the day.
She expected her audience to be mothers in their forties. Instead, many are students with one pot, a tight budget and little time, and some have written to thank her.
She films about three videos a week after work with her wife, Veronica Bezuidenhout, who helps shoot and edit. Since the start of the Covid pandemic the couple have cooked and handed out food parcels; she now runs charity meals at least once a month for pensioners and job seekers, mainly in Richwood and Bothasig. Her advice to anyone who wants to help: start with the people in need nearest to you.
Source: Daily Maverick, 28 October 2026.
