South Africa Wastes 10 Million Tons of Food, But One Organisation Races to Save It

Cape Town — In a warehouse on the outskirts of Cape Town, crates of packaged food, carrots and canned goods move quickly from pallets to plates. Stacked high against the walls, food that might otherwise go to waste is sorted and redistributed, part of a growing effort to tackle both hunger and food loss in South Africa.

FoodForward SA, the continent's largest and longest-running food bank, redistributes surplus food from farmers, manufacturers and retailers to community organisations across the country, reaching close to one million people each year and moving around 20 million kilograms of food a year.

"FoodForward sits in the middle; we're essentially a connector," said Marlene Marais, the Marketing and Communications Manager, during a walk-through of the organisation's Cape Town facility, founded in 2009. "We receive surplus food and redistribute it to organisations that prepare meals for people in need."

South Africa wastes an estimated 10 million tonnes of food each year, much of it before it even reaches consumers. At the same time, millions face food insecurity, a gap that FoodForward SA is working to close.

The food that arrives here is not spoiled. It is not dangerous. It is simply inconvenient to the systems that produced it, the wrong shape, the wrong label, the wrong timing. A carrot that grew slightly crooked. An apple that didn't blush evenly enough for a supermarket shelf. A pallet of canned goods was labelled incorrectly, or the box was dented in transit, while the contents were still perfectly sealed inside.

In a typical week, about 60,000 kilograms of food move through the Cape Town warehouse alone. When large donations arrive - excess dairy, unsold produce, or bulk goods - that figure increases sharply. The organisation's ability to move food quickly is critical.

"The more perishable it is," Marais said, "the quicker it needs to go out."

Unlike many traditional food banks that rely heavily on fixed warehouses, FoodForward SA expanded its reach through a mobile distribution system. Its Mobile Rural Depot uses a fleet of trucks to deliver food directly to remote and underserved communities, where access to affordable food is often limited or physically difficult.

While it operates warehouses in major cities, including Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban, Gqeberha and Bloemfontein, much of its reach now extends beyond urban centres. Rather than being anchored to cities, the organisation deliberately oriented itself toward the communities with the least access.

FoodForward SA's Managing Director, Andy Du Plessis, said that beneficiary organisations based in the cities can come and collect their food directly from the warehouse. But for organisations working in rural communities, the distance makes that impossible.

"So our trucks go to them," he said.

FoodForward SA operates in 21 rural depots, each serving as a collection point for organisations drawn from surrounding towns and villages. On any given day, a truck might stop in Oudtshoorn, drawing organisations from across the Karoo, before continuing to George, where groups from Knysna, Plettenberg Bay and Mossel Bay collect their allocations. The programme targets only the 100 poorest municipalities in the country.

From these hubs, food is distributed to a network of beneficiary organisations, including early childhood development centres, orphanages, community kitchens, shelters, health facilities, and aged care centres.

"We don't provide directly to individuals," said Marais. "We support organisations that cook and serve meals, often multiple times a week."

Beyond quantity, nutrition is a key focus.

The organisation says 93% of the food it distributes is nutritious, with fresh produce prioritised alongside staples such as beans, lentils and fortified foods.

One of its targeted interventions is a mother-and-child nutrition programme aimed at addressing malnutrition and stunting in young children. Marais described it as one with the greatest urgency.

It is estimated that 28.8% of children under the age of five are stunted in South Africa, an indicator of chronic undernutrition. The effects that are not only physical but also cognitive, shaping their capacity to learn, develop and thrive.

"We want to make sure that we intervene while we can change the nutrition status," Du Plessis said. "After five years, you can't change that. So those first 1,000 days are actually very crucial."

FoodForward SA and the Philani Maternal, Child Health, and Nutrition Trust launched the Mother and Child Nutrition Programme in May 2023 to meet this urgent need. It operates through clinics, in partnership with the Department of Health, and targets a specific and urgent group: mothers and children who are malnourished, at risk of stunting, or already stunted. The programme provides nutrient-rich food parcels to vulnerable families.

"Up to the age of three, stunting can still be reversed with proper nutrition," Marais said.

The boxes assembled for this programme are dense with protein and micronutrients: tinned fish, beans, lentils, peanut butter, eggs, and cooking oil. Inside each box sits a fortified sorghum porridge, developed specifically for early childhood nutritional needs. Families receive these boxes when they attend clinic appointments for maternal and child health assessments.

Growing food, growing livelihoods

Outside the warehouse, another initiative is taking root. Through its Food Gardens Connect programme, FoodForward SA trains communities to grow their own food, offering practical skills and resources to support long-term food security.

The organisation also runs community garden programmes, primarily around Cape Town. The programme offers a six-week training course in sustainable gardening. The participants receive a full starter kit, compost, spades, rakes, forks, hoses - at no cost to them. Many of them, previously unemployed, learn to cultivate crops in repurposed pallet boxes, a method designed to contain soil and nutrients in coastal environments where sandy ground and strong winds make open planting unreliable. The produce can be consumed at home, sold locally, or sold back to the organisation through a buyback system.

"We empower communities to stand on their own," Marais said. "We teach people how to grow their own food. How to create a sustainable living."

The seedlings themselves are grown on-site at the warehouse, planted by corporate volunteers, and then donated free of charge to the gardens. Once those seedlings become cabbage, broccoli or spinach, FoodForward SA buys the produce back at a guaranteed price.

"So in that way, people can actually earn an income," Du Plessis said. "The project becomes more sustainable over time; there are no costs to the people working in the garden, but they can actually earn a living." Last year alone, he said, FoodForward SA paid out R40,000 to garden participants through the buyback guarantee.

Closing the gap between surplus and hunger

For Du Plessis, the scale of food waste in South Africa remains one of the clearest indicators of a system under strain. He said that more than tonnes of food are lost or wasted each year. This is nearly a third of the country's annual food production. Much of this never even reaches consumers.

"It's edible, but it's not sellable," Du Plessis said. He also pointed to how strict retail standards, cosmetic imperfections, or minor labelling errors can render food unsellable despite being perfectly safe to eat.

Farmers are often forced to discard produce that falls outside size or appearance specifications, while manufacturers may reject entire batches due to packaging faults. At the retail level, products nearing their sell-by date or failing to move off shelves are also removed from circulation.

FoodForward SA's role, he said, is to intercept this surplus before it becomes waste.

"We want to stop good food from going to landfill," he said. "Because once it's wasted, there's very little you can do with it."

Since joining the organisation over a decade ago, Du Plessis said FoodForward SA has grown from a small operation into a national network, now working with more than 2,000 beneficiary organisations across all nine provinces. In the past financial year alone, the organisation distributed 20,000 tonnes of food, enough to generate around 82 million meals.

It is estimated that 10 million tons of food go to waste in South Africa every year, resulting in landfills. Yet millions of people go to bed hungry each night. The majority of general waste disposed of in South African landfills is organic waste. It is one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions through the decomposition process. The environmental dimension of the work is equally significant.

When food is dumped in large quantities in a landfill, Du Plessis said, it begins to rot and releases methane, a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change. Preventing that process is, in its own way, climate action. Globally, food loss and waste generate up to 10% of all greenhouse gas emissions, roughly four times more than the entire aviation industry, which accounts for 2-2.5%. By recovering surplus food, FoodForward SA helps prevent those emissions.

To help close that gap, the organisation has introduced technology to scale its reach. Its FoodShare platform connects retail stores directly with nearby beneficiary organisations.  Woolworths, Pick'n Pay, Food Lovers Market and SPAR all participate. Stores list surplus food nearing its sell-by date; organisations registered within a five-kilometre radius receive notification and collect directly from the store, cutting out the warehouse leg entirely. A community kitchen can be alerted in the morning and have food on the table by evening.

"That's how we're able to connect greater access to food for those that need it," said Du Plessis.

The results have tangible consequences. FoodForward SA's active participation in key initiatives secured its inclusion in South Africa's Just Energy Transition programme. It was through its recognised role in reducing food loss and associated methane emissions. The organisation submitted a methane‑abatement proposal to the JET Funding Platform, framing its food‑waste interventions as a low‑cost, scalable climate‑mitigation measure that also bolsters food security.

This makes it eligible for grants and financing that could fund further expansion. According to Du Plessis, the organisation has been meeting with potential investors, pitching its case for climate finance linked to reducing methane emissions.

The need for reform

Du Plessis believes policy reform is critical to tackling food waste at its source. South Africa currently lacks a formal food donation policy, something he says is urgently needed. Unlike the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Italy, South Africa has no food donation policy, he said. There is no law preventing good food from being dumped in a landfill. There is no requirement that edible surplus be offered for human consumption before it is discarded. The result is that companies wishing to donate food do so voluntarily and without a clear regulatory framework; many simply don't.

"We need a framework that makes it unlawful for good food to be dumped," he said. "It's an easy thing for the industry. They want to get it off-site, so they dump it. But we need to find ways to intercept that food so food banks can use it."

FoodForward SA has been working on the architecture for change.

The organisation is working with the South African Bureau of Standards to develop national guidelines for food donations. The SABS guideline is an important national step because it gives retailers, manufacturers, and farmers clear hygiene and safety rules for donating edible surplus food instead of dumping it, which can help reduce waste and improve food security in South Africa. Du Plessis has described the standard as a major win that could unlock more surplus food for redistribution and support a future food donations bill.

"We're hoping that the SABS food donation standard will be the precursor for the food donations policy," he said. "The standard is out for public comment..., and once finalised, it will give the industry a clearer framework for donating surplus food to organisations like FoodForward SA. That's a big win for us," said Du Plessis.

This systemic change not only significantly reduces unnecessary food waste in South Africa but also creates a reliable and scalable pipeline for distributing nutritious food to vulnerable communities, directly supporting food security efforts led by organisations like FoodForward SA.

"We are serious about two things," said Du Plessis. "One, reducing food and nutrition insecurity. And two, acting against climate change by recovering edible surplus food so that it doesn't go to landfill. It's a dual mission."

He extended an invitation. To financial donors. To farmers, manufacturers and retailers who have not yet heard of FoodForward SA. To anyone with surplus food and nowhere to send it.

"We love for people to partner with us," he said.

This article originally appeared on AllAfrica.