Ten unacceptable facts about hunger in South Africa on World Hunger Day

Many South Africans have heard of World Food Day (16 October), but probably way fewer have heard of World Hunger Day (28 May). In 2011, The Hunger Project launched World Hunger Day to call attention to the global food crisis. The vision for World Hunger Day 2030 is a world where no person lacks access to adequate nutritious food.

Importantly, World Hunger Day does not see donating meals to hungry people as a sustainable solution. Instead, the solution lies in empowering hungry people, and addressing the underlying social and economic inequities that cause hunger. Ending hunger requires systemic change. By empowering communities facing hunger, we can transform the systems of inequity that keep hunger in place.

We argue that World Hunger Day is more appropriate than World Food Day for South Africa to commemorate. Lack of food is not a problem in our country; hunger is the problem. This apparent paradox is easy to explain. There is more than enough food in South Africa, but millions of South Africans do not have access to sufficient food, because of poverty, unemployment, food waste, and inadequate government interventions such as social grants.

Here are 10 reasons why South Africans should take World Hunger Day seriously.

Ten unacceptable facts about hunger in South Africa

1. A total of 1,000 children die from severe acute malnutrition every year. Malnutrition is the underlying cause of a further 10,000 child deaths every year, accounting for one-third of all child deaths in South Africa.
2. More than 1.5 million children under five (29%) are stunted, or too short for their age. This has increased from 27% in 2016. The global target is to halve stunting by 2030.
3. Only one in five infants (22%) under six months old are exclusively breastfed. The global target is 50% by 2025.
4. A total of 10 million tons of food goes to waste every year, equivalent to one-third of 31 million tons This wasted food could generate 30 billion meals, enough to feed all hungry people in South Africa for more than a year.
5. The Child Support Grant, at R560/month, is 30% below the food poverty line, and 42% less than the cost of a nutritious diet for a child.
6. Farm workers suffer severe seasonal hunger, rising from less than 50% in summer (farming season) to over 85% in winter (when they have no work).
7. A worker earning the national minimum wage (R28.79/hour), after electricity and transport costs, can buy less than half (41%) of a nutritious diet for a family of four.
8. A total of 14 million South Africans, or 25% of the population, survive below the food poverty line, which is set at R796 per person per month.
9. One in five households (21%) have inadequate access to food. Female-headed households are more affected (24%) than male-headed households (18%).
10. Twenty-four percent of black and 19% of coloured South Africans, but only 3% of Indians and whites, have inadequate access to food.

The Union Against Hunger

The Union Against Hunger (UAH), a social justice movement with founding members that include civil society organisations like the Healthy Living Alliance (Heala) coalition, Grow Great and the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, see World Hunger Day as an opportunity to spotlight food injustice and advocate for upholding the constitutional right to food. On World Hunger Day 2025, the Union Against Hunger and partners are organising public meetings in three cities: Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg.

The UAH has also launched a petition (sign it here) calling on Shoprite CEO Pieter Engelbrecht to bring food prices down urgently. Reducing food prices is one of 10 demands that the UAH is making. Others include: halve child stunting by 2030; raise the Child Support Grant to the food poverty line and introduce a Maternal Support Grant; extend early childhood development and school nutrition to all children; address seasonal hunger, especially of farm workers; and pass legislation to reduce food wastage.

A recent Daily Maverick article revealed that 155 children have died of malnutrition in public health facilities since January, according to official statistics provided by the minister of health. An unknown number — probably much higher — have died of hunger outside hospitals and clinics. 

This is not “normal”. It is unnecessary and unacceptable, as World Hunger Day reminds us. The government, the private sector, civil society and the general public should all unite to fight the scourge of hunger and malnutrition in South Africa, until no one goes to bed hungry, let alone dies of entirely avoidable malnutrition. DM