ONE SMALL SPOON, STIRRING UP #ZEROHUNGER IN SA
Over the past week, World Food Day, on October 16, positioned the idea that a #zerohunger world is possible by 2030. The 2018 campaign theme — “Our actions are our future” — highlighted that hunger is everyone’s problem. It’s a reminder that the way to achieve a “Big Hairy Audacious Goal”, like feeding the world, is all about getting everyone on board to do their little bit. That’s where One Small Spoon comes in.
At Woolies, we launched the One Small Spoon campaign on World Food Day to unite our employees and customers, suppliers and farmers, and key partners in a drive to bring about one of the most critical changes in the country — that every South African is able to access sufficient, nutritious food every day.
Each day 14 million people are at risk of hunger in SA. At the same time as they battle for this most basic survival need, at risk of long-term health issues, it is estimated that one-third of all food in the country ends up in a landfill. That’s right. One-third of all the food in SA is thrown away, while the most vulnerable go hungry.
Clearly, hunger does not occur because the pie is not big enough to share. We need less waste along the entire supply chain and access to nutritional food for everyone needs to be drastically improved.
Our One Small Spoon campaign highlights that there is something that every one of us can do about this. From reducing our own household food waste to supporting food security initiatives, or from growing our own and sharing, to igniting #zerohunger conversations in our online communities, we all have “a small spoon” we can use to eliminate hunger in our country.
As a good food business, we have considerable expertise to contribute to a nationwide effort to end hunger. Supporting increased food security has been a strategic focus of the Woolworths Trust over the past 15 years.
The One Small Spoon campaign pulls together long-standing initiatives such as store-level giving of surplus food; funding of the EduPlant programme initiated and managed by Food & Trees for Africa; sharing nutrition expertise through the Woolworths Educational Programmes and the ongoing implementation of “Farming for the Future”.
Added to this, in 2018, we have launched new, intense food-security ventures. We have entered into a multimillion-rand partnership with FoodForward SA to boost their logistics for further distribution of surplus food. We have joined forces with Unicef to fund a three-year pilot project at Gauteng schools to help the Volunteer Food Handlers to improve their knowledge of good and nutritious food to allow children to develop and grow strong and healthy.
And there’s more to come …
Keep an eye out for the new food security Christmas initiative to raise R2m for FoodForward SA to unlock 2.5 million meals for distribution to fellow South Africans in need by purchasing causerelated products and swiping your MySchool or Woolies-linked card.
We’re on a great food-secure journey — join us www.woolworths.co.za/ onesmallspoon