The biggest annual collaboration of cooks, communities and corporates cooking for a cause – Chefs with Compassion’s #67000litres Challenge – is back once again this Mandela Day – and you’re invited!
Can South Africa beat last year’s achievement of serving 283 588 people a meal
For two years in a row, Chefs with Compassion has set a seemingly unachievable target of cooking #67000litres of soup for Mandela Day. In 2020, the target was smashed. 77 455 litres was cooked, serving 309 820 to hungry people all over the country. Last year, amidst fears that the challenge would be cancelled due to the KZN riots, cooks all over South Africa rose to the challenge, got behind the cause and cooked 70 870 litres – filling 283 588 tummies on Mandela Day.
Every day, approximately 20 million people go to sleep hungry. Shockingly, around 12 million tonnes of perfectly edible food goes to waste every year – which is more than enough to feed every hungry person. The #67000litres Challenge is a nationwide opportunity for every single person in South Africa to help feed hungry people – and to raise awareness of the need to address this imbalance and find ways to redirect nutritious food that will go to waste into hungry tummies.
No matter where you are in South Africa and whether you’re a home cook, a caring corporate or a community-based organisation, you can share in the collective action of a nationwide initiative to cook #67000litres of soup in honour of Mandela Day.
How many litres of soup can you cook? Every litre gives four people a hearty, nourishing cup of soup – cooked with compassion by you!
There is no compulsory donation for Hotels & Restaurants to participate, because of the volume of soup you will be producing at your own expense. Please enter the COMMUNITY category.
We’re challenging you to clean out your pantry ahead of Mandela Day. It’s fun – and rewarding. Simply create a recipe using close-to-expiry-date products in your pantry and supplement them with wholesome and nutritious ingredients to make a hearty soup.
Not only will every litre of soup you cook feed four hungry people, your participation fee is a donation to Chefs with Compassion. The #67000litres Challenge is our biggest fundraiser of the year. The money is used to sustain the operational costs for our sharehouse in Joburg, where a dedicated, passionate team of waste warriors, headed up by food rescue partner Hanneke van Linge of Nosh Food Rescue and sharehouse manager Jane Gqozo, rescues produce from the Joburg Fresh Produce Market and donors across the food supply chain, separate the true waste from food that is fit for human consumption, and facilitate the logistics to get it to community kitchens and chefs to cook into nourishing meals. Without these funds, Chefs with Compassion can’t our mission to Rescue | Cook | Feed.
The mass participation of hundreds of people focuses attention on the fact that the food that is wasted across every stage of the food chain (Agriculture – Manufacturing – Distribution – Retail – Consumer) is sufficient to feed every hungry South African three meals a day.
Please help us keep food vulnerable recipients safe by following these important food safety guidelines and tips on the safe preparation, cooling and transport of your soup. You can read the guidelines.
Founded in March 2000 at the start of lockdown in South Africa, Chefs with Compassion is an organisation that rescues food to enable its network of cooks and community kitchens to cook and feed the thousands of food vulnerable people in the communities they serve all over Johannesburg. Rescuing perfectly good food that would otherwise go to waste, Chefs with Compassion ensures that thousands of people go to bed with at least one meal in their tummies every day. To date, Chefs with Compassion has rescued 1,108 tonnes of food from going to waste and served 2,906,143 million meals through a network of 30 kitchens across Gauteng.
For Chefs with Compassion, Mandela Day is an opportunity to raise awareness of how much food is wasted in South Africa, and how the devastating impact of food waste on the environment can be prevented by redirecting it towards people who can use it to cook and feed their communities. These are the facts:
CooksRead More |
CorporatesRead More |
CommunityRead More |
Yes. The challenge is open to anyone, anywhere, between Friday 15 and Monday 18 July. As long as you have cooked for at least 67 minutes and delivered to your beneficiary sometime before 14h00 on Monday, 18 July you are very welcome to participate. Every litre counts!
Absolutely! All you need is a kitchen, ingredients, a commitment to cooking for at least 67 minutes – and a beneficiary of your choice to whom you can give your soup.
The kitchens who are currently supported by Chefs with Compassion’s sharehouse in Joburg will receive ingredients to enable them to participate. In the event that we receive sponsorship over and above what is needed for our kitchens, we will be able to assist other participants in the Community category. However, this is not guaranteed. Please note: The Community category is for NGOs, soup kitchens and hunger relief organisations around the country who wish to participate as well as for hotels and restaurants cooking in large volumes.
Yes! Every litre counts. You can give your soup to any hungry person or family of your choice.
There is no minimum or maximum. Every litre counts.
Yes. 67 minutes is the minimum participation time required. This is in keeping with the Mandela Day philosophy of giving back for 67 minutes in appreciation of the 67 years that Nelson Mandela spent fighting for justice, equality and human rights for all.
We are inviting you to find your own beneficiary – an organisation that is in your area or close to your heart. Anyone, anywhere can participate, and challenging our participants to choose their own beneficiary means that organisations everywhere will benefit.
Reach out to your local church, synagogue, temple, mosque or religious group. They usually have soup kitchens or families in need that they support.
If you haven’t registered yet, please do so online. If you have already registered and you want to update or change the number of litres or the name of your beneficiary organisation, please keep a lookout for a link that will be sent to you a few days before Mandela Day.
Excellent question. You will receive food safety guidelines via email after you register.
Our recipe book from the 2021 #67000litres Challenge has some wonderfully nutritious soups, created by a few of our foodie friends.
Once you’ve decided who your beneficiary is, you should make contact with them to arrange the logistics. Some organisations have transport and are able to collect, and others will need the soup delivered to them. Please remember to complete the delivery/collection before 14h00 on Monday, 18 July, and log your final tally in the link that will be emailed to you.
After making sure you’ve followed the food safety guidelines to ensure that your soup is cooled down and stored safely, you’ll either deliver or your beneficiary will collect, depending on what you’ve arranged with them. Please remember to complete the delivery/collection before 14h00 on Monday, 18 July, and log your final tally in the link that will be emailed to you.
Companies can enter a team in the CORPORATE category. Team members can either cook individually in their own kitchens at home or, if you have a canteen kitchen, you could cook together. The same applies for selecting beneficiaries – either each team member choses their own local beneficiary, or you all cook the same recipe and combine the soup to make one big delivery to a single beneficiary of your company’s choice.
Every participant will receive a link via email, asking you to upload your final number of litres before 14h00 on Monday, 18 July. The total of all the soup cooked by all participants in all three categories around the country will be tallied and the announcement of the final amount cooked in 2022 will be made live on Facebook at 16h00 on Mandela Day.
We encourage every participant to follow through on their commitment to cook on Mandela Day. Not only does it affect our predicted amount of soup that will be cooked (and our ability to meet the target of #67000litres, most importantly, it means that the beneficiary you have committed to cooking for will go hungry.
Every cent of the money raised goes towards keeping Chefs with Compassion going. We receive no funding from government and we rely mainly on corporate donations. Our operational costs include stipends for volunteers, transport costs for our waste warriors, and rental of our sharehouse in City Deep. If we don’t raise a significant amount of money through our Mandela Day project, Chefs with Compassion will no longer be able to supply our community kitchens with rescued ingredients, and more people than ever will go hungry.
Registered NPOs, soup kitchens, church groups and bona fide organisations who are able to receive soup between Friday 15 and Monday 18 July can register to be listed on our website. Please register here, and thank you for everything you are doing in your community.
If you are registering as an individual, you can enter the COOK category. If you are registering for your hotel or restaurant to participate in large volumes, please register for the COMMUNITY category.
Culinary schools fall into the COMMUNITY category if you are cooking in large volumes. Please register and make a donation if it's within your means to do so.
All hotels and restaurants fall into the COMMUNITY category. If it's within your means, please make a donation of any amount that you can.
Please register, and we will waive the registration fee. Our main objective is to give as many hungry people as possible a meal on Mandela Day.
Please email info@cwc.org.za
I am ready to commit to cooking a healthy, nutritious soup for my chosen beneficiary for the #67000litres Challenge this Mandela Day.
Please click the button below to complete the form.
