SA Harvest, a leading food rescue and hunger relief organisation in South Africa, has been given 1 000 tonnes of oranges, but needs help getting it to the hungry in Durban and Johannesburg.
The organisation has appealed to the South African logistics and transport industries to help them distribute the oranges, donated by Indigo Fruit Farming.
Ozzy Nel, Chief Operating Officer of SA Harvest, says the donation of the fruit “is just one piece of the food rescue puzzle.”
What follows is a massive logistical undertaking to transport 68 tonnes of fruit every week from the packhouse in Nelspruit to either Durban or Johannesburg.
They already have help from Unitrans and Maersk, who are providing trucks for the first four weeks, and from HelloChoice, which has procured the agri bins.
“This leaves us with a weekly transport requirement of 68 tonnes of citrus between Nelspruit and either Johannesburg or Durban between 5 June and 28 August. We are also in need of trucks to return the agri bins to Nelspruit each week.”
The problem illustrates the critical role of logistics in reducing food waste and hunger.
“With over 10.3 million tonnes of edible food wasted annually in South Africa, while 20 million people are on the spectrum of food vulnerability, SA Harvest is working to bridge the gap by rescuing surplus food from farms, manufacturers, and retailers and distributing it to those in need,” the organisation says.
