FoodForward SA received the gold award for the Circular Economy Waste Innovation category at the Eco-Logic Awards held on 5 October at the iconic Two Oceans Aquarium at the V&A Waterfront.
Recognised as South Africa’s surplus food recovery pioneer, FoodForward SA was among more than 200 entrants that competed across 12 categories. The win recognises an idea that is simple to state but very difficult to execute at scale – food that is perfectly good to eat should feed people, not landfills.
Circularity promotes the keeping of valuable resources in use for as long as possible, rather than letting them travel in a straight line from production to the bin. FoodForward SA applies that principle to food. While the food supply chain regards unsellable yet edible food as “waste”, we see it as a valuable resource. For nearly two decades, FoodForward SA has safely secured and redistributed quality surplus food donated by farmers, retailers, manufacturers and wholesalers, and channels that food back into the human food system, through a network of vetted community organisations that collectively reach close to 1 million vulnerable people daily.
Good quality food is received via two distinct yet powerful channels. Large trucks collect bulk surplus food directly from retailers, restaurants, manufacturers and farmers, while our FoodShare digital platform links beneficiary organisations to nearby retail stores and food outlets for the regular collection of edible food. Every kilogram recovered is a kilogram of food, and of the water, energy, land and labour that went into producing it, that is put to its intended use. The impact reaches well beyond the food itself: food donors also save on the cost of discarding food, so the model benefits the whole supply chain.
A journey that started in 2009
FoodForward SA was established in 2009 to address hunger in South Africa by recovering quality edible food for redistribution to people in need. From its Cape Town head office, it has grown into what is now Africa’s largest food redistribution organisation, serving vulnerable communities through a network of more than 2,200 vetted Beneficiary Organisations across all nine provinces.
Along the way, we have kept innovating. In 2018, we launched the FoodShare digital platform and later introduced the Mother and Child Nutrition programme to care for malnourished children and underweight mothers, as well as the Food Gardens Connect programme, teaching previously unemployed people to grow their own and offering a buy-back guarantee on the produce they wish to sell, so that they earn an income. Today FoodForward SA also provides school breakfasts, deep rural food access via our Mobile Rural Depot (MRD) programme and responds to various disasters such as floods and fires. The vision for this work has not changed since 2009: roughly a third of all food produced in South Africa, about 10 million tonnes a year, is lost or wasted, while millions of people experience food insecurity.
Closing this gap is what we do best.
The partners who make it possible
No organisation achieves this level of scale alone. FoodForward SA’s generous food and financial donors span retail, manufacturing, fuel and philanthropy. Some of our top food donors include Woolworths; Pick n Pay; Food Lover’s Market; Spar; Tiger Brands; Rhodes Foods, RCL, Danone, OneFarm Share, Premier Foods, Massmart, and Mars. We are deeply grateful to these partners, and to every other food and financial donor, volunteer, beneficiary organisation and supporter whose contribution is reflected in this award.
Two challenges, one solution
Surplus food recovery addresses two of South Africa’s most pressing challenges at once. The first is food and nutrition insecurity. Hunger is not caused by a lack of food in the country, since about one third of South Africans cannot afford to buy food. Recovered food, including fresh produce and nutritious staples, helps close that gap. It is also remarkably cost-effective: the foodbanking model facilitates the delivery of a meal for just R0,47 – the lowest metric worldwide.
The second challenge it addresses is climate change. Food that decomposes in a landfill releases methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Food that is eaten does not. Every ton diverted from landfill avoids those emissions and the far larger footprint of producing replacement food. Powerful collaboration and connecting the dots result in reduced food waste and lower carbon emissions.
Looking ahead
The gold award is a celebration, and a sobering reminder of how much remains to be done. Millions of South Africans still go to bed hungry while good food goes to waste. Every retailer, farmer, manufacturer, restaurant and household that chooses to share rather than discard brings that gap closer to closing.
A circular economy is built from countless small decisions: a crate of vegetables recovered, a pallet redirected, a meal shared. FoodForward SA has demonstrated that when those decisions add up, a waste problem becomes a hunger and a climate solution too.
This award belongs to everyone who helped make that possible. Together, we can make sure that no good food is wasted, and no one goes hungry.
Andy Du Plessis
FoodForward SA Managing Director
