SA Harvest: fighting hunger and food waste one meal at a time

Small beginnings can lay the foundation of great success. This holds true for SA Harvest, a food rescue and distribution organisation. Ali Conn, regional manager at SA Harvest, spoke to Jeandré van der Walt about the organisation’s journey over the past year and its future plans.

- Jeandre van der Walt

SA Harvest started out small in 2019, with a single truck in a single city and only three employees, recalls Regional Manager Ali Conn. He adds that the organisation was formed in direct response to many issues that plague not only South Africa’s food system, but global systems worldwide.

“About 10 million tons of food go to waste in South Africa each year,” says Conn. “At the same time, we have millions of South Africans on the verge of starvation and even more who are food-insecure.”

This while South Africa produces more than enough food to feed all of its people. “Our food system is broken, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be fixed. SA Harvest is taking responsibility for doing just that.”

Based on an Australian model called OzHarvest, which has delivered more than 120 million ‘rescued’ meals to date, SA Harvest was founded by social activist Alan Browde and is chaired by entrepreneur and philanthropist Gidon Novick, who founded Kulula.com and Discovery Vitality.

According to Conn, SA Harvest is an end-to-end food rescue solution service and deals with perishable and non-perishable foods. The organisation collects excess fresh food from a wide range of suppliers, including farmers, retailers, restaurants, airlines and events. “We work with fresh produce, frozen foods, dry goods and everything in between, as we have the resources and documentation required to work with all food types to ensure that we can rescue enough food with nutritional value to distribute,” notes Conn.

To ensure that it provides enough fresh food to its beneficiaries, SA Harvest relies heavily on South Africa’s agriculture sector.