"The goal," says Taelo Mojapelo, CEO at bp Southern Africa, "is to support SA Harvest to deliver 36 million meals to those in need over three years. We see this partnership as an investment in our country — it's an honour to be assisting a fine organisation like SA Harvest in its work."

SA Harvest says that it aims to end hunger and reduce food waste at the same time. Since 2019, it has been working with an ecosystem of partners to rescue nutritious food that would have gone to waste and deliver it to hungry people nationwide, using refrigerated vehicles where necessary.

bpSA's contribution is helping SA Harvest's fleet of vehicles deliver food daily to over 40 vetted beneficiaries in:
  • Durban
  • Cape Town
  • Bloemfontein
  • Nelspruit, and
  • the Mthatha region in the Eastern Cape.

SA Harvest adds that alongside its core food-delivery operation, it runs educational and up-skilling programmes aimed at changing behaviour relating to food and finding new solutions to combat food waste and hunger.

"A year into this partnership, we have already achieved some major milestones. bpSA has helped SA Harvest deliver 20 million meals, providing thousands of individuals at least one meal every day," says Alan Browde, CEO and founder of SA Harvest.

"In the process, we have saved six million kilograms of food from going into landfill, saving 390 000 tonnes of methane gas from being emitted into the atmosphere," adds Browde.

"Solving the problem of hunger has significant benefits for the country in terms of physical and mental development and well-being — particularly when it comes to early childhood nutrition. It's completely unacceptable that 30% of our children are stunted, and South Africa will remain at a massive disadvantage while our children suffer the effects of malnutrition," says Browde.

"With the help of generous corporate partners like bpSA, we are slowly but surely helping to change the face of South Africa, one full belly at a time. We look forward to continuing our partnership with bpSA over the next two years," Browde concludes. 

For more information, visit www.saharvest.org. You can also follow SA Harvest on Facebook, X or on Instagram.