Woolworths teams up with FoodForward SA to tackle food waste
Fourteen million South Africans go hungry every day, but it would be wrong to assume this is due to food shortages in the country. On the contrary, a shocking one-third of the food produced in South Africa goes to our landfills. The country produces more than enough food, but those who need it most cannot effectively access the surplus.
FoodForward SA connects a world of excess to a world of need through its recovery of food that is perfectly edible but destined for landfills, and then its distribution to a wide network of other NPOs. The organisation was formed in 2009, and last year alone it delivered 4,400 tonnes of food to 600 NPOs, which resulted in 17.6 million meals for 250,000 hungry South Africans.
With food security as a corporate focus area, Zinzi Mgolodela, Woolworths head of corporate affairs, says that the new FoodForward SA partnership complements Woolworths’ existing food security projects, such as its 15-year sponsorship of Food & Trees for Africa’s EduPlant programme. This schools permaculture food gardening initiative helps school communities improve food access, availability and utilisation.
Woolworths’ own surplus food donations are mostly managed at store level to the benefit of local communities across the country. Last year, R556 million’s worth of Woolworths food, not sold before the ‘sell by date’ but still within the ‘use by date’, was donated directly from stores to charities.
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