This World Food Day, celebrate seven years of SA Harvest by helping food reach families during the school holidays.
For a child who depends on a school meal, the last bell before the holidays can bring a difficult question: where will my next meal come from?
Imagine looking forward to the school break while knowing that a meal you count on will no longer be part of your day. At home, your family is already doing everything it can to make the food last.
Now imagine beginning those holidays with food in the cupboard and one less worry for your family.
You can help make that possible. R1,000 funds one School Holiday Bucket, designed to support four people for four weeks. Contributing now helps us prepare before school closes
Why a school meal matters beyond the school gate
School meals support children and help ease pressure on household food budgets. South Africa’s National School Nutrition Programme reaches approximately 9.4 million learners, according to the Department of Basic Education’s 2026 briefing.
With 22% of households reporting inadequate or severely inadequate food access, replacing those meals during the holidays can add pressure to already stretched budgets. Source: Statistics South Africa, General Household Survey 2025.
World Food Day: turning awareness into action
Observed every year on 16 October, World Food Day commemorates the founding of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in 1945 and encourages action to improve food security.
This year’s theme, “Innovate today. Nourish tomorrow.”, highlights how better approaches across the food system can improve access to nutrition.
For SA Harvest, that means addressing the gap between suitable surplus food and people who need it. Food can be available on a farm, in a factory or within a retailer’s supply chain without being within reach of a household facing hunger. Our work helps connect the two.
Seven years, made possible together
World Food Day also marks SA Harvest’s seventh birthday.
From one van in Cape Town in 2019, we have grown into a national food-rescue and logistics network. Since inception, we have rescued 30 879 859 kg of food, enabling more than 123 million meals, with 243 community-based organisations in our network.
Every meal enabled reflects a collective effort. Thank you to the food donors, financial supporters, volunteers, staff and community partners who make this work possible.
Over the years, we have used World Food Day to recognise that collective effort and encourage participation. We renewed our commitment to ending hunger on our first anniversary in 2020 and celebrated 30 million meals in 2022. In 2025, Chef Pinky joined young people from MES’s Dance for Purpose initiative to cook with rescued and overlooked ingredients, opening conversations about hunger, food and sustainability.
This year, we invite you to celebrate with us by helping families prepare for the school holidays.
What the holiday gap means for families
At the Foundation for Special Needs, Children and Youth Development (FSNC&YD) in Alexandra, demand on the community kitchen increases during school holidays. Spokesperson Phumelele Masebe explains that the kitchen supports more than 200 children, supplementing school meals during term time. When schools close, some children depend on the kitchen for their only meal that day.
“Our partnership with SA Harvest is so critical – it allows us to keep the pots cooking every day when families need us most,” she says. Even then, she stresses, one meal does not guarantee that a child has enough food for the whole day.
The pressure also affects family wellbeing. Sinikiwe Mqadi of Ububele Educational and Psychotherapy Trust explains that uncertainty about food can strain parents’ emotional resources.
“When that worry is lifted, when parents know their children are nourished, they are better able to respond to their children’s emotional needs,” she says.
A simple contribution. A whole system behind it.
Your contribution supports the bucket’s contents, sourcing, packing, storage, transport and coordinated community distribution. Food purchased specifically for the campaign moves through our established infrastructure, alongside our ongoing surplus-food rescue work.
We have seen what collective action can achieve. In December 2023, journalist Estelle Ellis drew attention to the holiday food gap. Daily Maverick readers responded, and SA Harvest’s infrastructure and community partnerships helped the collaboration reach 1,702 families.
This year’s response builds on that experience, connecting public support with the practical work required to deliver it.
Help food reach families this holiday season
Sponsor a School Holiday Bucket or contribute an amount that works for you. Contributions are pooled to support the campaign response.
Don’t let hunger rule the holidays.
Any amount helps.