A groundbreaking food rescue organisation committed to nourishing our nation. SA Harvest, an NPC committed to food rescue in South Africa, hosted their first official launch at The Service Dining Rooms, Cape Town, on World Food Day. The organisation’s purpose is to eliminate hunger and food waste through education, and by the rescuing and re-distribution of quality surplus food. Stats SA reveal that over 13 million people experience hunger in South Africa every day, yet 10 million tons of the food we produce goes to waste annually – the cost of which to our country is in excess of R72 billion. “These two irreconcilable realities are the motivation for the founding of SA Harvest,” says CEO of SA Harvest, Alan Browde. SA Harvest is based on Australia’s world-renowned OzHarvest, which was started by ex-South African entrepreneur Ronni Kahn in 2004, and is also being replicated in the U.K.,Thailand and New Zealand.
While there are many people and organisations in South Africa who help in the rescuing and distribution of food, there isn’t really anybody who is taking a leadership role in alerting the country to the absolute urgency of reducing hunger and food waste. “SA Harvest is passionate about fulfilling this role whilst doing something practical about it,”
SA Harvest is based on four pillars:
Food rescue
SA Harvest’s modus operandi is unique in S.A. in that it uses refrigerated vehicles to collect and deliver perishable and non-perishable foods, enabling their recipient organisations to get sufficient variety to provide full and nourishing meals to their people.
Education
This is a critical arm of our business, says Alan, “We are able to raise awareness about food waste, food rescue, and food security and nutrition through sustainable and appropriate educational programmes and technologies that, inter alia, help people to become food self-sufficient.”
Engagement
This means working together with communities to reduce their food waste and alleviating hunger in their midst and together creating successful and sustainable solutions.
Innovation
As innovators in the rescue space, SA Harvest is constantly looking for innovative solutions to combat food waste and hunger in South Africa.
Not only does SA Harvest alleviate hunger and food waste through free delivery of wholesome, quality food, but there are other significant benefits that it offers, namely, savings for their beneficiary organisations who are now able to re-direct vital funding from their transport cost savings to other projects. Another significant benefit is the protection of the environment through reducing global warming, by ensuring that good food is eaten rather than going to landfill.
Vida e caffè, SA Harvest’s first corporate donor, mentioned, our partnership is in line with their sustainability strategy – we are committed to an on-going ’vida e mundo’ (life & the world) journey to ensure a sustainable world for everyone and everything living on our beautiful planet. We are proud to be a part of this fantastic initiative through which we get to lessen our impact of waste on the planet and more importantly in this instance provide meals for people far less fortunate than ourselves”, says vida e caffè CEO, Darren Levy.
