Chefs With Compassion calls on Mzansi to join the #67000litres movement

Chefs with Compassion has challenged home cooks, corporates, chefs and communities across the country to put their 67 minutes into cooking a nutritious, delicious soup for a beneficiary of their choice and help Chefs with Compassion reach the target of 67 000 litres of soup cooked for hungry people in honour of Mandela Day.

Chefs with Compassion was founded in March 2020 at the start of lockdown in South Africa as an organisation that rescues food to enable a network of cooks and community kitchens to cook and feed the thousands of vulnerable people in communities all over Johannesburg. 

CHEFS WITH COMPASSION PREPARES FOR THIS YEAR’S #6700 0LITRES MANDELA DAY CHALLENGE

The Chefs with Compassion  2022 challenge is going out to:

• Cooks – including home cooks all over the country, each contributing a R100 participation fee
• Corporates – for a participation fee of R5 000 for small and medium companies and R15 000 for large corporates
• Communities – community organisations, church groups and other religious organisations, hunger relief organisations and NPOs affiliated to Chefs with Compassion, for an optional participation fee

The participants in all these categories are challenged to cook as many litres of delicious, nourishing soup as they can in 67 minutes during the Mandela Day weekend of Saturday 16 to Monday 18 July, and deliver it to their chosen beneficiary organisation.

Chefs With Compassion national project manager, Chef Coo Pillay said the funds collected through the challenge are used to sustain Chefs with Compassion’s operational costs. 

“We run a share house in Johannesburg, with a dedicated team of waste warriors headed up by our food rescue partner Hanneke van Linge of Nosh Food Rescue and share house manager, Jane Gqozo. 

“They diligently rescue produce from the Joburg Fresh Produce Market and from donors across the food supply chain. True waste is separated out from food fit for human consumption, which is distributed to community kitchens to create nourishing meals.”

Chef Coo Pillay

Chiefs With Compassion’s key aspect of the 2022 challenge is to create greater awareness of the enormity of food waste in South Africa.

Food waste annually accounts for about one third of the food produced in the country – an estimated 10 million tons of food is wasted every year, while about 20 million people go to bed hungry every night. 

“We embrace the opportunity that Mandela Day gives us to highlight the devastating impact of food waste on the environment and how this can be prevented by redirecting it to people who can use it to feed their communities,” Pillay said.

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