Durban North resident strives to end 10 million tonnes of food waste

AS South Africa commemorates Human Rights Day on 21 March, the Northglen News visited the SA Harvest warehouse to find out more about their work.

Some 10 million tonnes of food ends up in the landfill every year in South Africa while millions of people go to bed hungry. This according to KZN operations manager for food rescue organisation, SA Harvest, Lindsay Hopkins.

She said the massive amount of food waste is a result of a broken food system.

“It’s a constitutional right to have food and SA Harvest is taking measures to take authorities to task where food is not handled with respect,” she said.

The organisation rediverts food from the landfill into the community.

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“We also source the right food to put together nutritional packages for the community. Nutrition is so important to us. We work with frozen foods, dry food and fresh food to end malnutrition. There’s a serious problems with malnutrition even some people who are obese are not healthy. We go out and source food when there are items missing from our food hampers. I have a corporate kitchen making 20 litre buckets per day and they make 30 buckets. Each bucket serves between 80 and 100 people. Our beneficiaries are vetted and we ensure they are supporting their communities,” she added.

SA Harvest aims to increase access to food.

“We take on any short dated or surplus food items. There are tonnes of food waste that goes to landfills which we redirect into the community. The food comes from farmers, retailers, manufacturers and distribution centres,” said Hopkins.

She said there was massive food wastage when food does not meet retails standards or if complications arise in the distribution process. “If there are any blemishes or misformations on fruit or vegetables, the retailers wont buy it from the farmers. From the distribution side, if they send of a whole pallet of glass bottles of a sauce out and one ends up cracking, they have to return the whole pallet,” she explained.

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Currently, SA Harvest is distributing salvaged food to communities in uMlazi, Chatsworth, Inanda, KwaMashu, Palmiet, Ballito, Richards Bay and Hammersdale.

“If you have millions of South Africans going to bed on empty stomachs, our food system is broken. We are trying to take it apart and rebuild it,” she said.

Hopkins also started a NPO round table in KZN to help NPOs work together.

“I created a NPO round table for Durban. What happened during Covid is that a lot of NGOs stopped their mandates to feed people. Now they are trying to get back to their mandate but still have hungry people to feed. So I have asked to take over their donations and beneficiaries,” she explained.

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