An Eastern Cape partnership shows how permanent community facilities, reliable food rescue and investment in emerging leaders can strengthen food access.
South Africa is on course for its largest commercial maize harvest on record. The Crop Estimates Committee’s 27 October forecast puts the 2026 commercial maize crop at 17.69 million tonnes, within a total summer-crop forecast of 21.85 million tonnes. Yet many households continue to struggle to access enough nutritious food. What matters next is whether food can be moved safely, affordably and consistently to the people who need it.
Research published by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in 2021 estimated that 10.3 million tonnes of edible food was lost or wasted in South Africa each year, equivalent to about 34% of local food production. Not all of that food can be recovered. But safe, edible surplus can reach communities when reliable collection, food-safety checks, transport, cold storage and local distribution are in place.
SA Harvest operates one such system. It works with food producers, retailers and manufacturers to recover suitable surplus and redistribute it through logistics and warehousing infrastructure to vetted community-based organisations. SA Harvest reports that it has enabled more than 125 million meals nationally since 2019.
“With a harvest at this level, the question for food access is how much of that food reaches the households that need it,” says Ozzy Nel, CEO of SA Harvest. “Community organisations already know which families are going without, and when food businesses and funders supply them through responsible redistribution, the food arrives on a schedule they can plan around. Vehicles, cold storage and community partnerships determine how far that can extend.”
An Eastern Cape partnership built to last
The Eastern Cape shows what this kind of coordination looks like in practice. In the Cwebeni area near Port St Johns, the work is rooted in iThemba Kuluntu, a local community organisation, and has grown through the distinct contributions of several partners.
A Buckets of Nutrition campaign led supported by Daily Maverick through contributions from its readers, raised more than R2 million in its first year and reached approximately 2,000 families in Pondoland. FNB supported an early childhood development centre in Cwebeni, reported to serve around 120 children a day, alongside training linked to the site for more than 40 local women. The Maria Marina Foundation funded a greenhouse supporting food growing and practical learning.
The Lingham Foundation funded the community centre and skills centre at the iThemba Kuluntu site. The two permanent buildings provide space for community gatherings, local coordination, training and skills development. They form part of a wider community platform that can continue serving people long after an individual campaign has ended.
Separately, SA Harvest supplies rescued surplus food to Missionvale Care Centre near Gqeberha. This long-established community organisation provides breakfast and lunch to 200 children each day and weekly food parcels to around 500 families. Its work is another example of why trusted local organisations are essential to the last mile of food access.
The Foundation’s support has also extended to SA Harvest’s national operations. A grant received in January 2025, was allocated to logistics, warehousing and operational staffing. Using SA Harvest’s R1.20 cost-per-meal methodology for that reporting period, this equates to over 684,422 meals enabled, nationally.
Investing in the next generation of food-system leadership
The Lingham Foundation also supported SA Harvest’s participation in the One Young World Summit in Cape Town (3–6 November 2026), extending the partnership into leadership development and international exchange. CEO Ozzy Nel was invited to contribute to the Summit’s food-security programme, including an Action Circle keynote on nutrition security. Pinky Tshabalala, nominated by SA Harvest as its young leader delegate, also received an invitation to a small-group sustainable food-systems mentoring session with Grace Harding, CEO of Ocean Basket. These opportunities connect South African food-rescue experience with international peers and create space for future collaboration.
“A record harvest matters most when the systems exist to get food to households safely, consistently and with dignity, and those systems take sustained investment,” says Charlene Lingham, Co-Founder of the Lingham Foundation. “The Eastern Cape shows what several years of that investment makes possible in communities that are ready to build on it.”
SA Harvest and the Lingham Foundation are calling on food businesses to make responsible surplus-food recovery part of their operations, on funders to invest in food-access and community infrastructure, and on government to support stronger coordination between the parts of the food system. Reliable food-access systems give community organisations greater scope to plan and businesses a practical way to keep suitable surplus food in use.
For more information: saharvest.org | linghamfoundation.com
The Lingham Foundation is The Lingham Foundation. Contributed articles reflect the views of their authors, not Africa.com.