As South Africa celebrates Heritage Month, it is perhaps important that we ask ourselves how we have lost our sense of community, especially as we are a nation known around the world for Ubuntu. Ubuntu forms a large part of our heritage, yet this sense of showing humanity to others is at risk of being eroded, unless we take decisive action.
To put this into context, South Africa is a food secure country at national level, meaning that we produce enough food to feed the entire population. Yet, research shows that about 11% (6.5 million) of the country’s population is hungry and food insecure, while a recent Ipsos study reveals that more than 40% of South Africans of all age groups were affected by hunger to greater or lesser degree.
“Food not only serves as one of the critical human needs that is required for daily survival, but South Africa recognises access to food as a fundamental human right – it is enshrined in our Constitution,” says Tiger Brand Foundation (TBF) operations director Karl Muller.
“Not only are these figures alarming, but they are also getting worse as South Africans find themselves battling against rising food prices, steep inflation and an increasingly tough economic environment.”
Major problem
Muller notes that food insecurity and hunger continue to be a major problem plaguing the country, as food insecure households do not have enough money to purchase food or to produce their own. These households are typically either unemployed or receive a low income, which makes them particularly vulnerable to economic shocks.
“Yet, this is not a battle that we, as a country, should be losing. Not only does the country produce enough food to feed everyone, but we also have one of the largest non-government organisation communities that are dedicated to ending poverty and hunger,” says Muller.
He notes that one of the biggest contributing factors to hunger and food insecurity in South Africa is the massive amount of food that is wasted every year and reducing this wastage could be a key step towards alleviating food insecurity among the most vulnerable in society.
A report by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) reveals that a third of all food produced per year is actually never consumed, but ends up on the rubbish dump. This translates to 10 million tonnes of food going to waste every year of the 31 million tonnes produced annually in South Africa. The value of this loss has been put at R61.5 billion a year by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.
Start doing better
“At the same time, many actions and strategies to reduce food wastage have already been well formulated but are yet to be effectively implemented. The major obstacle seems to be entrenching these strategies within government, businesses and households. Simply put, we need to start doing better,” says Muller.
However, while hunger and food insecurity in and of itself is an immediate problem faced by millions in South Africa, it also has the potential to impact the country’s future, as hunger has been linked to poor educational outcomes.
“It is no secret that children from food insecure households are often less adequately equipped to reach their full academic potential, with research showing that these children are more likely to experience developmental impairments in areas like language, motor skills and behaviour,” says Muller.
“Since hunger impacts learning by stunting a child’s physical development, inhibiting their ability to focus and perform and limiting their future achievements, it can essentially rob our country of future leaders. We need to act now to reverse this trend.”
Top priority
Nourishing young growing minds should remain a top priority and in-school nutrition programmes are key to fighting child hunger. In South Africa alone, some 9.6 million learners are fed by the government’s National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP) at schools across the country every day. The NSNP programme was designed to improve the ability of children to learn by combating malnutrition, reducing hunger and improving school attendance.
TBF has established an in-school breakfast feeding programme to complement the lunch provided by the Department of Basic Education as part of the NSNP. The Foundation’s in-school breakfast programme now reaches 95 schools across all nine provinces in South Africa, and feeds over 74 637 learners per day, with a total of 78 510 beneficiaries.
“But government cannot do this alone. It is up to various stakeholders, such as the Tiger Brands Foundation, to provide assistance to sustain and enhance the resilience of nutrition through a new generation of school nutrition programmes to ensure a better future for our children,” Muller concludes.
