Hanneke accidentally took over the running of a weekly soup kitchen in Krugersdorp West in 2015 - where she first consciously encountered the diabolical extent of food waste – and has never looked back.
Out of this activity NOSH Food Rescue NPC was born – a growing non-profit social enterprise which collects food surplus from different sources ranging from the retail sector to agriculture. This rescued produce is then distributed to an ever-widening network of soup kitchens, shelters and feeding schemes.
At the beginning of the first Covid-19 Lockdown in April 2020, Hanneke became a founding partner of ‘Chefs with Compassion’, a new NPC aiming to engage with chefs and the hospitality industry to utilise food surplus to cook nutritious meals for those in need.
A long-time environmental- and food activist, Hanneke is a member of Slow Food and started the Slow Food ‘Food Waste Warriors’ community to further highlight the brokenness of the current food system and educate on issues surrounding waste, hunger and food justice in general.
She is also involved in various permaculture, community garden, homesteading, self-sufficiency and sustainability initiatives, often meshing with the aims of NOSH, which are to make good quality nutrition accessible to those who need it most.