Local NPO Chefs with Compassion plans to feed 300,000 people this Mandela Day

Lester Kiewit speaks to chief executive officer of SYSPRO EMEA, Mark Wilson, about Chefs with Compassion's Mandela Day initiative.

Hunger and food wastage is one of South Africa's biggest issues, with over 20 million people going hungry every day, despite ten million tons of food going to waste a year.

This where the non-profit organisation (NPO) Chefs with Compassion is attempting to step in, with the organisation hoping to make 67,000 litres of soup to feed an estimated 300,000 people this Mandela Day.

The organisation was born two years ago after the COVID-19 pandemic left many jobless and worsening the already horrendous poverty crisis that South Africans face daily.

Show host Lester Kiewet marks that one of the reasons the millions that go hungry is food wastage in the country, where legislature and regulations demand exactly how food needs to be disposed of.

Chief executive officer of SYSPRO EMEA, Mark Wilson, agrees, saying that legislation needs to change.

If we don't find ways to feed the youngsters of today, we are not going to have future leaders of our country coming to the fore because their bodies and their minds are never going to be fully developed.

Mark Wilson, Chief Executive Officer - SYSPRO EMEA

Wilson notes that though this initiative is happening to Mandela Day, it stretches beyond 18 July but does encourage everyone to participate in the initiative.

The callout is to everybody to participate in this. It doesn't matter whether you're an individual that wants to make a few litres at home with some stuff you've got lying in your pantry that you can then feed your local community. Or, it could be a corporate cookoff.

Mark Wilson, Chief Executive Officer - SYSPRO EMEA

Those interested can find out more about Chefs with Compassion here.

Listen to the full interview above.

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