Activist and food rescue hero: Hanneke van Linge’s inspiring story

Some people refer to Hanneke van Linge as the “21st century Mother Theresa”, because she has touched so many lives with her selfless and tireless work in and around Gauteng.

From being an environmental activist to food rescue hero, philanthropist and founder of Nosh Food Rescue and a champion of Chefs with Compassion, Van Linge has worn many hats outside of her ordinary life.

She is also involved in various permaculture, community garden, homesteading, self-sufficiency and sustainability initiatives, often meshing with the aims of Nosh, which are to use existing surplus produce to make good quality nutrition accessible to those who need it most.

Van Linge has not only helped and fed millions of homeless people on the streets, but has saved food from being wasted and taught many people, from professional chefs, nonprofit organisations and corporations, to reduce food insecurity by diverting, repurposing and redistributing prepared and perishable surplus food that is still wholesome and nutritious.

Hearing the “titles”, Van Linge sat up from her low comfortable chair and chuckled.

“I’m far from that, maybe we can just say I was born to serve, that’s a better way to put it.

“But if I were to describe myself, I always say I’m a professional hippy and I drink for a living. Oh, and I’m a trash bandit, I always eat out of the trash,” she said jokingly.

Born in the Netherlands, at just four years old Van Linge moved to France for two years, then to Holland for four before moving permanently to South Africa.

“And so, I’ve always loved to travel, and because my father worked for Phillips, we had the privilege of moving a lot and seeing a lot of places in the process,” she said.

“I moved to Israel for a little for au pairing and then travelled the world a bit more in that time, and later moved back to SA to further my studies in Cape Town.”

Before she could continue telling her life story, Van Linge paused a little, smiled and said: “Ten guesses, looking at the work I do now, what do you think I studied to become?

“I studied bachelor of science (BSc) in chemistry and zoology, at the University of Cape Town (UCT), nothing to do with people, activism, food, and even craft,” she added.

However, in order to sustain herself and to keep Nosh going, Van Linge also wears the hat of a crafts teacher and winetasting teacher, presenting wine tastings and organising wine functions.

“I am also on the board of an under-resourced animal shelter, so I have my hands in many jars because I love doing various things,” she said.

When asked where the love of craft came from, she noted that growing up in a family that loves to recycle things, they were raised to be very crafty and savvy with recyclables.

“I remember being a child at school and my mom would always have a big box of various things, from pill containers, corks and little things that we could glue together and just create crafts projects.

“So, I can’t remember a time where I was not dwindling and fiddling, and I still do that to this day with my studio, where I teach others to dwindle and fiddle. I teach tie dye and mosaic.”

Her love of food began way before her journey with Nosh.

“I worked as a cook on a charter yacht and when you have been in a situation where your food storage is beneath your feet and you’re cooking in that state, you can easily do anything.

“I didn’t even go to school for it, I was taught by the school of hard knocks, spills, burnt pots, and cake dries.

“I don’t actually even remember my mom teaching me how to cook; it was never a thing,” she explained.

“And she was an amazing cook, she did some courses, she did some beautiful Indonesian cooking, but I don’t have memories of learning at mom’s knee or anything romantic like that.

“I just picked it up as I went. I guess when you’re faced with something, you make do and you never want to waste it, and that’s something I want to instil in our beneficiary organisations.”

A little after that she then “accidentally” took over the running of a weekly soup kitchen in 2015 – after a friend asked if she knew anybody who would be willing to take over her soup kitchen because she was retiring.

“I said no, but I’ll come help you for three weeks and then we’ll figure something out after that. But after I got exposed to that level of need it just became really hard to walk away.

“And one day, someone arrived with a big bag of rolls, bread and cake, and said our bakery throws this away every day. Can you use it for the soup kitchen? I said, of course, and that got me started on my path with food waste.”

As she learned and explored, she got to understand just how extensive food waste is.

This passion, supplemented by her love of permaculture and agriculture, led to the birth of her various charity organisations to perform her activism and effect positive change, and, ultimately, give a pathway to Nosh – a growing nonprofit social enterprise that collects and redistributes food surplus in South Africa and, soon, in Botswana.