Mandela Day 2025: Eight initiatives you can join to help fight our food crisis

News24

17-07-2025

South Africa faces a food crisis, with 63% of households food insecure and 10 million tonnes of food wasted annually.
This Mandela Day, citizens are urged to tackle hunger through impactful initiatives like soup drives, food parcel packing, and feeding schemes.
You can join efforts like Chefs with Compassion, FoodForward SA, and others to fight food insecurity and honour Mandela's legacy.
As South Africa grapples with a deepening food crisis, this year's Mandela Day theme, 'It's still in our hands to combat poverty and inequity,' urges citizens to take meaningful action. From warehouse volunteering to stadium-scale soup feeding schemes, these are eight impactful food-focused initiatives to support on Mandela Day, observed on 18 July.
According to the latest SERI Food (In)Security Report, 63% of households face food insecurity, while 23.1% experience severe hunger.
At the same time, 10 million tonnes of food are wasted annually, and nearly one in three children under five is stunted due to chronic malnutrition.
The Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI) is a non-profit human rights organisation focused on challenging inequality and realising socio-economic rights in South Africa and beyond.
According to the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity Group's latest affordability index, the average cost of a Household Food Basket in June 2025 is R5 443.12.
With millions going hungry while edible food is discarded, fighting for food justice remains one of the clearest, most direct ways to honour Mandela's legacy.
These eight Mandela Day initiatives use food as resistance and relief on the International Day of Observance.
#67000litres: Cooking at scale
Now in its sixth year, Chefs with Compassion returns with its national #67000litres Challenge, a campaign to cook and distribute soup to vulnerable communities using surplus food.
Launched during the 2020 hard lockdown, the initiative brings together professional chefs, culinary schools, and community kitchens to create meals from food that would otherwise go to landfill.
Last year, the campaign cooked 104,360 litres of soup. In 2025, the target is over 100 000 litres, enough to feed an estimated 400 000 people.
Participants include hospitality academies like Capsicum Culinary Studio and HTA School of Culinary Art, with support from corporate partners such as Marriott International.
Chefs With Compassion
FoodForward SA, the country's largest food redistribution NGO, will host volunteer sessions at its national warehouse sites on 18 July.
Since its inception, the organisation has recovered and redistributed more than 40 million kilograms of food, an intervention that feeds people and diverts waste from landfills.
Volunteers can spend their 67 minutes helping pack food parcels at Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban, Gqeberha, and Rustenburg locations. These parcels support a network of more than 2 750 beneficiary organisations, including early childhood centres, old-age homes, and community kitchens.
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Helping hands in District Six: Service Dining Rooms provides meals and essential support
In Cape Town's District Six neighbourhood, the Service Dining Rooms will host volunteers to help serve lunch at 11:30 to more than 250 clients. Every weekday, the organisation prepares nourishing meals for around 300 people who visit their site at 82 Canterbury St.
The organisation functions as a depot for donations, accepting food, clothing, toiletries, and other goods to distribute to clients in need. Additionally, they are launching a drive to collect new underwear, an often-overlooked item despite the significant demand among vulnerable people.
They also extend their reach by providing food parcels and cooked meals to off-site beneficiaries, including Mosadie Gives Back and Solomon's Haven in Mitchell's Plain, The Athlone Foundation in Hanover Park, Youth Solutions in Salt River, and the Masejonge Children's Feeding Scheme in Khayelitsha.
SA Harvest: Feeding matrics, fighting inequality
SA Harvest will use Mandela Day to highlight the link between hunger and academic performance. Their Buckets of Nutrition for Matriculants campaign provides essential food, hygiene products, and stationery to high school learners in underserved areas, framing nutrition as a building block of education.
On Mandela Day, the public can attend bucket-packing events at Melrose Arch in Johannesburg and the Pavilion Mall in Durban.
Each R500 bucket can feed a family of four for up to three weeks. During the pandemic, SA Harvest found that over 400 000 children went hungry, while millions of tonnes of food went to waste.
The campaign is supported by partners like Rhodes Food Group, H&M, and the Road Freight Association, and aims to make food justice part of education equity.
Ladles of Love: Stadium-scale activations
At the Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit in Gauteng and DHL Stadium in Cape Town, Ladles of Love will host over 10 000 volunteers in two-hour sessions focused on food preparation and early childhood support.
Participants pay R250, which the organisation says sponsors two healthy meals daily for one child monthly.
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Mustadafin Foundation: R12 a meal to feed a belly
The Mustadafin Foundation is asking South Africans to sponsor one hot meal for R12 for those wanting a direct, no-frills way to contribute. The Cape Town-based organisation operates in areas with high poverty and food insecurity rates.
In addition to daily feeding schemes, Mustadafin supports early education, youth interventions, and healthcare programmes. Donations can be made online using the reference #MandelaDay, or larger partnerships can be arranged directly through their office.
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From 14 to 18 July, customers on the Checkers Sixty60 app or web platform can donate non-perishable food items to Meals on Wheels South Africa, an NGO operating 173 kitchens across all nine provinces, providing over 200 000 meals daily.
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'Previous contributions have kept some branches running for up to a year,' says Gershon Naidoo, the programme director for Meals on Wheels.
Checkers will match every donation and refund the delivery fee. Since 2020, this partnership has generated food donations valued at R2.7 million. Delivery is as simple as entering 'Meals on Wheels Plumstead', 'Gillitts', or 'Yeoville' into the app's address bar and shopping from the 'Deliver Kindness' section.
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Several local initiatives also aim to use Mandela Day to replenish pantries and school meal programmes. In Gauteng, Kids Haven is building a food pyramid made entirely of non-perishables, calling on companies, schools, and families to collect staples such as beans, lentils, pilchards, jam, peanut butter, and rice.
The Mbizana Soup Kitchen is a non-profit organisation that serves one meal three times a week (Monday, Wednesday and Friday) to the struggling and unemployed community in Khayelitsha, Cape Town. Meals are provided at Manyanani Peace Park Hall, Qondani Street, with hopes of expanding to five days a week. For Mandela Day, the organisation has launched a blanket drive to provide physical warmth and emotional comfort, fostering dignity and belonging within the community.