This Mandela Day, SA Harvest has called on South Africans to take part in a campaign that champions dignity, justice and youth empowerment. The 2025 'Buckets of Nutrition for Matriculants' campaign is a public-facing initiative focused on equipping Grade 12 learners in underserved communities with the essentials they need to face their final school year.
Each curated bucket includes shelf-stable nutritious food, hygiene items and basic stationery — small but significant tools to restore dignity and support academic success, says SA Harvest.
On Friday, 18 July, SA Harvest will host public bucket-packing activations at Pavilion Mall in KwaZulu-Natal and Melrose Arch in Gauteng, with the help of committed partners including Rhodes Food Group, H&M, NUMUTI, AMDEC and others. With music, school choirs and community engagement on the day, the events offer individuals and corporates a chance to contribute meaningfully, adds the initiative.
In a national show of solidarity, the Road Freight Association (RFA) has stepped up to provide fleet capacity, warehouse space and distribution logistics, ensuring the buckets reach learners across South Africa, says the initiative.
The campaign is grounded in findings from the recent SERI Food (In)Security Report. More than 63% of South African households face food insecurity, with 23.1% in severe need. Stunting affects 30% of boys and 25% of girls under age five, with lifelong implications for learning and development. Nutrition directly affects cognitive function: poor diets mean poor academic outcomes, especially for girls in low-income households. During the pandemic, 400 000 children and 1.8 million households were affected by "perpetual hunger". Yet, 10 million tonnes of food go to waste in South Africa each year, adds the initiative.
"Food justice is education justice," says Ozzy Nel, Chief Operating Officer at SA Harvest. "When young people don't have access to nutritious meals, it's not just their health that suffers — it's their futures. These buckets are an act of solidarity and a rejection of a broken system that allows food to go to waste while learners go hungry."
Last year's Mandela Month campaign saw 2 879 buckets packed by over 350 volunteers across three cities, containing more than 74 800 individual food items, including protein, carbohydrates, vitamins and nutrients. Distribution was facilitated by 19 community-based organisations, says the initiative.
In December, SA Harvest partnered with Daily Maverick and Missionvale Care Centre to deliver 106 buckets of nutritious food, new clothes for mothers and babies, and 5kg bags of maize to parents and grandparents of hospitalised children in the Nelson Mandela Bay metro. Donations from Daily Maverick readers surpassed R715 000, adds the initiative.
The 2025 campaign invites all South Africans to play a part. You can sponsor a bucket for R500, join a packing event at Melrose Arch or Pavilion Mall on Friday, 18 July, or partner with SA Harvest for in-house activations or logistics support.
Individuals are encouraged to make donations here, using the reference "Buckets".
For more information, visit www.saharvest.org. You can also follow SA Harvest on Facebook, X, or on Instagram.
*Image courtesy of contributor