Food Sock revolutionizes affordable nutrition in SA

When the going gets tough, the tough get going, South Africans are a resilient bunch and when challenge knocks at the door, innovation is the inevitable output.

Resilience and a desire to fulfil the needs of a growing number of a hungry and increasingly desperate nation is behind the birth of the Cape Town originated product Food Sock. And while the name doesn’t conjure up the best of mental images, it’s one of the best ideas anyone has had to dramatically cut the cost of nutrition.

A R45 meal-mix can feed up to six people handsomely said Jacques Swart, a former aviation catering specialist who, along with his friend and partner, tradesman Vincent Hunt, have set their sights on easing the pressures on households come mealtime. Swart said: “We were just scrolling on Facebook when we came across Food Sock. And it seemed like a brilliant idea to help people better afford getting a plate of food in front of their families.”

The pair contacted the Cape Town based manufacturing organisation, invested in becoming a distributor and the rest as they say, is history. Swart and Hunt now sell thousands of Food Socks to customers from Swart’s former place of employ, a coffee shop in Benoni, while maintaining their day jobs. Hunt said that it has become a passion, and a labour of love for community. He said: “We presently provide the meal kits to churches, charities and families who are in dire need.”

Good food at a good price

Food Sock meals are soy or pasta based and presently comes in nine flavours. Despite expectations to the contrary, it tastes good, is filling and the potential to feed legions of people in need, or to simply cut your own household grocery bill, is immense. For the price of around two- and a-bit loaves of white bread, a family can now cook a nutritionally balanced and flavourful meal. Presently there are Tomato Bredie, Mutton Stew, Chicken Breyani, Pasta Bolognese, Mac and Cheese, traditional Melkkos and Chicken and Veg soup amongst others on the menu.

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While the two’s foray into distributing Food Sock is not entirely altruistic, Hunt said that much of the small profit they have made thus far was used to give product to people in need. The big idea of Food Sock is to provide more than just a meal, but also an opportunity for downstream income generation, community entrepreneurs to create employment for themselves.

Swart said that it has been an amazing journey until now, and what really surprised him, pleasantly, was the number of customers in the community who are purchasing products simply to give away. “There are hundreds of people who are sustaining families that cannot afford to survive anymore,” he said. “We get requests daily from people who simply want to give, to help others. It’s been an incredibly uplifting experience to be able to facilitate this in a small way.”

A household reliant on two Sassa grants would be able to stock up on meals for the month, in total around one thousand four hundred Rand, and use the second social paycheck for other expenses.

Swart and Hunt have also been experimenting with Food Sock at home. Swart said: “Add a bit of potato, and you double its feeding capacity,” he noted. “I have been playing with various ideas to create different dishes out of the meal kit’s base, my family the guinea pigs of culinary endeavours.” He shared that he has several kinds of pies, cheesy bakes and played with multipliers like various vegetables to stretch the potential of nutrition, to find ways of making more with less.

While the pair did not invent Food Sock, they have taken ownership of the sentiment and made it their mission to help more people put food on the table, affordably. Presently they are woodworking their own display stands and have grand ideas for the future. Hunt said: “We are not the only resellers, but we intend to be the guys who make a real difference.”

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