Latest news with #WorldHungerDay
Associated Press
16 minutes ago
- Business
- Associated Press
Serving Up Hope: How Yum! and KFC South Africa Are Tackling World Hunger One Meal at a Time
LinkedIn May 28 was World Hunger Day, an observance supporting efforts to address food insecurity around the world. Feeding communities is foundational to the way Yum! Serves Up Good everyday – as a matter of fact, Yum! has donated more than 215 million pounds of food to those in need since 1992 through efforts such as Harvest. KFC South Africa's Add Hope program is one example of how our brands and markets are making an impact in their communities. Statistically, one in four South African children experience severe food poverty, placing them at risk of life-threatening malnutrition. KFC's goal is to help feed these children so that they may have the opportunity to learn, grow and thrive. Since launching 16 years ago, the Add Hope program has provided meals for 1.2 million children in South Africa, collecting over $66 million through guest donations and sales, averaging more than 133,000 meals served daily to children in need. Read more about how this team is tackling world hunger, one guest check at a time. Visit 3BL Media to see more multimedia and stories from Yum! Brands
Zawya
10-06-2025
- General
- Zawya
South Africa: Sowing the seeds of food security
Observed annually on 28 May, World Hunger Day is a global call to action to raise awareness and inspire efforts to end hunger. Responding to this call, the central team from Libstar, a leading South African producer and distributor of consumer packaged goods, rolled up their sleeves to plant a winter crop and some fruit trees at the Ravensmead Educare Centre, reaffirming their commitment to long-term food security. The new plantings build on the success of a summer crop sowed by the team on World Food Day in October 2024. That harvest has already contributed significantly to the community's nutritional needs. The initiative, facilitated through local non-profit The Sprightly Seed, forms part of Libstar's broader mission to support under-resourced communities through sustainable food gardening and nutrition education. Sustainable gardening to feed more families The garden at the Ravensmead Educare Centre yields approximately 85kg of fresh produce per season, which translates into over 4,000 nutritious meals. With the addition of the winter crop, the centre expects to serve more than 7,000 additional meals to at least 135 children over the next six months. 'As a food business, addressing hunger is core to our purpose,' said Charl de Villiers, CEO at Libstar. 'This initiative is about more than just planting crops – it's about planting hope, restoring dignity, and creating sustainable solutions to hunger. Supporting food security and nutrition is a key pillar of our CSI strategy, and we are proud to walk this journey alongside our committed partners.' The Ravensmead Educare Centre, a GROW Early Learning programme participant, plays a vital role in the local community by providing both early childhood education and daily meals to families in need. Principal Sarah Strauss expressed gratitude for the ongoing partnership: 'We are deeply thankful for the continued support from Libstar and The Sprightly Seed. Their commitment goes beyond the garden – it helps ensure our learners are well-fed and gives us the means to support even more families during the tough winter months.' Building resilience through regenerative agriculture Founded by human development specialist Jade Orgill, The Sprightly Seed specialises in regenerative agriculture and building community resilience. 'Our partnership with Libstar empowers resource-scarce communities to take ownership of their food systems. We're not only growing vegetables – we're growing knowledge, skills, and confidence. That's what sustainable food security looks like, commented Orgill.
Daily Maverick
03-06-2025
- Business
- Daily Maverick
Hunger crisis — rights group calls for state action as 23% of South Africans struggle to access food
The Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa has launched a report that unpacks the cause of South Africa's food poverty crisis and looks at legal frameworks to strengthen food security. 'People are not ignorant about nutrition, rather they are unable to access nutritious food and/or have to make strategic trade-offs,' it reads. Civil society organisations are calling for amendments to the updated National Food and Nutrition Security Plan to address and monitor affordability and food pricing and give people economic access to nutritious food. This is one of the recommendations in a new report by the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (Seri). The report, launched on Tuesday at Constitution Hill in Johannesburg, spotlights the struggles and the remedies people seek to put nutritious food on the table. The report is titled Food for Thought: Reflections on Food (In)Security. Laws, Experiences, Interventions. In the lead-up to its publication, Seri embarked on a #FoodJusticeWeek, during which it shared the experiences and coping strategies of partner organisations to highlight the impacts of food insecurity on the back of World Hunger Day. 'Seri stands in solidarity with communities around the country who experience hunger and food insecurity daily. Despite South Africa having the means to feed its population, millions still struggle to access sufficient and nutritious food,' the organisation said. The report notes official statistics that paint a bleak picture. According to Statistics South Africa's General Household Survey published in 2023, 23.1% of households nationally – more than one in five – report inadequate or severely inadequate access to food. A 2023 study commissioned by the then Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development and conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council found that half of all adults in South Africa are considered overweight or obese, while 69% of adults who are obese live in households that are food insecure and therefore have little choice in the food they eat and its nutritional value. 'The triple burden of malnutrition exists in the country, which happens when undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies and overnutrition exist simultaneously in society. Despite this, it is estimated that 10 million tonnes of food are wasted annually in South Africa, which constitutes about one-third of all available food. A disconnect exists between available food and those who struggle to access their next meal. Like the rest of the world, South Africa faces critical questions about how to produce food in a just and sustainable manner. Food wastage is not only a social and humanitarian concern, but also an environmental one,' the report reads. The report recommends the drafting of national framework legislation, such as a 'Food and Nutrition Security Act', which will be in line with recommendations from United Nations General Comment No 12 on the Right to Adequate Food. The report also highlights instances where the law has been used to compel the government to act on the right to food, including: Ensuring pupils received meals through the National School Nutrition Programme during Covid-19 lockdowns; Challenging barriers to access for the Social Relief of Distress Grant, linking to the right to social protection and food security; and Upholding the rights of artisanal fishers to access marine resources. The report also asserts that South Africa's National Policy on Food and Nutrition Security could help set out the roles and responsibilities of the different actors in relation to food security in South Africa, including an interdepartmental body with oversight responsibility. Other recommendations include: Implementation of a universal basic income grant; The Department of Employment and Labour to monitor the implementation of the national minimum wage and develop effective enforcement mechanisms; Civil society organisations and organisations and unions representing those in precarious work to keep advocating for a living wage; and The Department of Employment and Labour to monitor the working conditions of those in precarious work, such as domestic workers and farm workers. The research included case studies and anecdotes, including from a participant in a meeting in Slovo Park, who said: 'This hunger thing, it's changing our personality and it's changing our humanity. We have become like animals among each other. In order for me to have something in my stomach I have to do anything so that I don't go hungry.' DM
Hans India
03-06-2025
- Business
- Hans India
Malabar Group earmarks Rs 150 cr to scale up CSR activity
Hyderabad: Malabar Group, has allocated Rs150 crore in 2025-26 for scaling up its CSR initiatives focused on healthcare, education, hunger &poverty alleviation, women empowerment, environment protection and housing for less privileged. Under its flagship CSR initiative 'The Hunger Free World', the Group has committed to distribute 70,000 meals daily in India and Zambia to the under-privileged, totalling2.50 crore meals in 2025-26. This represents a significant leap from its cumulative achievement of 2.5 crore meals served over the past 3years and signals a deepened commitment to the cause of food security for underserved communities. The initiative is aligned with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal 2 - Zero Hunger. At an event held at the Dr Ambedkar International Centre, Janpath, New Delhi on May 28, which also marks the World Hunger Day, Dr Amitabh Kant, former CEO of NITI Aayog & G-20 Sherpa launched the next phase of the Group's CSR programmes. Other dignitaries included MP Ahammed, Chairman of Malabar Group; KP Abdul Salam, Vice Chairman, O Asher, Managing Director of India Operations, Group Executive Directors Nishad A K and K P Veerankutty, Group Director PA Abdulla Ibrahim, THANAL Daya Rehabilitation TrustChairmanDr. Idrees V, Zonal Head North Jishad N Kand other management officiates. Commenting on the initiative, MP Ahammed, Chairman of Malabar Group said, 'We dedicate May 28 as our annual CSR day; we reaffirm our pledge to stand with the underserved through sustained and impactful action. Our CSR initiatives are a reflection of that enduring commitment. While we are doing our utmost, a greater impact can be achieved if more organisations join this mission. With 295 million people globally facing acute hunger (as per UN data), immediate action is non-negotiable.'
Daily Maverick
30-05-2025
- Health
- Daily Maverick
SA food system ‘is not broken' — there is a lack of will to ensure food security
On World Hunger Day, Gauteng MEC for Agriculture and Rural Development Vuyiswa Ramokgopa was among the keynote speakers at the Union Against Hunger (UAH) community meeting in Lenasia South, Johannesburg, calling for an end to hunger. This was one of multiple information and capacity-building events planned by the organisation. MEC Vuyiswa Ramokgopa commended Union Against Hunger for bringing stakeholders together to begin the process of demanding change and fighting against hunger. She likened public and civil society collaboration to a soccer team, with all players having a significant role to play. 'I love what UAH has done in bringing others into the fold, that is exactly how we need to address these issues. We need to foster a safe, prosperous, hunger-free South Africa in one generation. We can't wait for 30 years, we don't have 30 years. That's why, as a department, we have committed to a reduction of 10% in this province by 2029. It doesn't sound like a lot, but that is at least 250,000 people no longer experiencing hunger. Let's end hunger,' said Ramokgopa Despite progressive constitutional guarantees, including the right to food and basic nutrition, millions of South Africans still face chronic and acute hunger. This mismatch between legal promises and lived deprivation is the focus of the Union Against Hunger (UAH). 'This year, on World Hunger Day, 28 May 2025, the UAH will be hosting a number of dialogues nationally to engage communities and the public and share information that will better enable and support the mobilisation of communities to demand their right to food and hold government and industry to account,' said Dr Busiso Moyo, member of the UAH secretariat and postdoctoral researcher with the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Food Security. 'The food system is not broken,' Moyo said at the mini-food indaba UAH event in Cape Town, which was held simultaneously. 'It is working exactly as intended, to accommodate some and exclude many.' The UAH, with its founding members, which include the Healthy Living Alliance, Grow Great, Nelson Mandela Children's Fund, the Women on Farms Project, Callas Foundation and the Centre of Excellence in Food Security, will, through these activities, draw attention to the 'slow violence' of hunger, malnutrition and food insecurity in South Africa. Civil society organisations all echoed that hunger needed political will and a policy fit for purpose, over and above citizens understanding their right to food. The Women on Farms organisation chaired a public meeting in Cape Town and called on Shoprite CEO Pieter Engelbrecht to urgently drop food prices to save lives. Zwelinzima Vavi, General Secretary of the South African Federation of Trade Unions, said the painful daily reality that haunted communities needed to be confronted — 'the stomachs that go to sleep empty, the children whose growth is stunted, and the families forced to choose between a loaf of bread and a school uniform'. According to Union Against Hunger, about 15.3 million people (25.8% of the population) experience food insecurity, while 6.8 million people (11.4% of the population) face chronic hunger. More than 1.5 million children have stunted growth as a result of chronic malnutrition. More shocking is that three infants die daily due to severe malnutrition in a country where the Constitution clearly states that 'everyone has a right to sufficient food and every child to basic nutrition'. 'These are not just numbers,' said Vavi. 'They are a national scandal. Comrades, what are the sources of this crisis? First, we must talk about land. Hunger in South Africa is rooted in land dispossession. It is a direct legacy of colonialism and apartheid. To this day, 72% of farmland remains in white hands. While land restitution was meant to reverse this injustice, the government has failed dismally,' said Vavi Vavi said that by 2022, more than 90% of land claims resulted in financial compensation, not the return of land. Of the land that had been returned, more than 70% lay fallow, abandoned, because there was no post-settlement support, no equipment, no inputs, no training, no credit. The state had set people up to fail. 'Instead of a redistribution programme that empowers the landless to produce food and employment, we are witnessing a slow surrender to the land hunger of mining houses, golf estates and commercial elites,' said Vavi He said that the food system was rigged against the poor. 'Let's talk about the profiteering of the big food monopolies. Just six companies dominate our food retail sector – and they are making obscene profits while our people starve. In 2023, the CEO of Shoprite, Pieter Engelbrecht, earned a package of R63.5-million. That's over R170,000 per day – enough to feed over 2,000 families daily on the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity Group's household food basket. 'Meanwhile, food prices have risen more than double the CPI. The Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity Group shows that in April 2025, the average food basket cost over R5,500 while most workers earn less than R4,000.' 'This is not just a market failure. It is criminal greed. 'Third, we must expose the double standards of global trade,' said Vavi. The Union Against Hunger also launched a petition (available here in English; here in isiZulu; here in Sesotho; here in isiXhosa) calling on Shoprite CEO Pieter Engelbrecht, who reportedly earned R83-million in the 2024 financial year, to bring food prices down urgently. The three main demands are:
