UWC Impact SDG2

In 2025, UWC combined student food support with community meal-packing, farmer learning and research into more secure food systems. UDubs Cares provided food parcels and basic necessities, students packed meals with Rise Against Hunger, and the UWC-hosted Centre of Excellence in Food Security supported practical training and exchange. The account below explains these contributions and keeps earlier activity clearly dated.

Food security within student success

Food security is part of UWC’s approach to student success. The 2025 Annual Report records continued food-security initiatives, bursaries and donor-supported assistance in response to financial pressure and delayed NSFAS payments. It explains how funding delays affected students’ daily living conditions and participation in university life, making practical support important alongside formal financial aid. [P02, printed p 15]

Council considered student food and nutrition support, including the food bank and donor-supported initiatives, during 2025. These discussions sat alongside accommodation, transport costs and student-funding risks, placing food security within the University’s oversight of the student experience. [P02, printed p 7]

Food support that helps students stay engaged in learning

UDubs Cares, run by UWC’s Institutional Advancement department, provided food parcels and basic necessities to students in need during 2025. UWC’s August account described continuing assistance and reported students’ appreciation of it, while also recording that demand could exceed supply. This combination of organised support and student feedback shows both the value of the programme and the pressure it faced. [C01, Supplied PDF p.1; public article paragraph on UDubs Cares]

The Student Nutrition and Wellness programme has a longer institutional history. UWC and Tiger Brands launched the partnership in 2017, establishing a campus pantry and planning monthly food supplies for students selected according to need. The initial delivery was intended to support the June 2017 examination period. The SRC helped establish the project, and the University invited additional non-perishable food and toiletries to supplement the pantry. [C04, Public launch article]

The food bank’s operating foundations are documented in the April 2022 renewal of UWC’s Tiger Brands partnership. The Division for Student Development and Support managed the programme, the food bank received monthly basic-food stocks, and recipients were selected through a needs assessment. Hampers were intended to sustain recipients for a month. These arrangements describe the 2022 programme; the dated 2025 account of continuing student support appears above. [C03, Public renewal article]

In July–September 2025, UWC’s Nutrition and Wellness Program distributed Tiger Brands-sponsored food parcels as part of Student Development and Support. Eligibility was checked with the Financial Aid Office, with unfunded students prioritised and funded students asked to explain their need. Eligible students received collection invitations, and parcels were packed discreetly to protect their dignity. The programme connected food support with student wellbeing and readiness for study. [T01, programme description, July–September 2025]

UDubs Cares and the partnerships behind food support

The food-support campaign became part of UDubs Cares in 2024. The initiative had launched on International Women’s Day with sanitary-pad provision and later extended its public fundraising campaign to food insecurity. Its October campaign supported the UWC Food Bank, which provided essential groceries discreetly and with attention to students’ dignity. Collection boxes across campus enabled staff, students and other supporters to contribute non-perishable food. [C05, Public announcement, 8 October 2024]

On World Food Day, 16 October 2024, corporate partners, staff and alumni joined a food-packing event for the UWC Food Bank. UWC reported support from Shoprite, Tiger Brands, Gift of the Givers, Titan Cargo, The Fix and Woolworths. Tiger Brands supported the food bank through its Plates4Days initiative. The account also recorded a Gift of the Givers and Titan Cargo commitment to monthly support in 2025. These were commitments to continuing support. [C06, Public report, 17 October 2024]

A November 2024 follow-up reported that the Food for Success campaign had raised close to R120,000 in cash and approximately R30,000 in donated food. Institutional Advancement indicated that the initiative would continue annually. The figures describe the 2024 campaign and illustrate the partnership base on which later support could build. [C07, Public outcome report, 20 November 2024]

On Mandela Day in 2025, The Fix donated R10,000 to UDubs Cares for food security and period-poverty support. The retailer also supplied 360 bags made from locally produced denim offcuts and book bags made from recycled promotional banners. UWC described the partnership as helping students obtain practical resources while protecting their dignity. The cash contribution supported the combined initiative, with no separate food allocation reported. [C02, Supplied PDF pp.1–2; public article dated 18 July 2025]

Listening to students to shape a stronger response

UWC’s 2025 Hunger Hearing brought students’ experiences of food insecurity into a public discussion of institutional and national responses. Convened in partnership with the Institute for Social Development, the DSTI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Food Security and the Union Against Hunger, the hearing formed part of a wider campaign to make hunger visible and identify systemic responses. Stephen Devereux, professor in Development Studies at UWC, convened the discussion. [C01, Supplied PDF p.1; public report dated 28 August 2025]

Students described how pressure on daily living costs and responsibilities beyond campus could compete with studying. The discussion treated food insecurity as an issue of dignity, safety and participation as well as food supply. Participants recognised the assistance offered through UDubs Cares but called for stronger and more sustainable support, including rethinking food banks, engaging alumni and involving students in long-term solutions. [C01, Supplied PDF pp.1–2]

Students proposed affordable, nutritious meals in campus dining halls as one possible response. The August report also announced a policy forum planned for World Food Day, 16 October 2025, to present the hearing findings. These proposals make the students’ priorities clear; the report documents discussion and planned follow-through rather than implementation of a new dining service. [C01, Supplied PDF p.2]

A longer tradition of practical support and volunteering

The Gender Equity Unit’s food programme began in 2007. A later UWC account described non-perishable food and essential toiletries supplied through donations, campus collection boxes and referrals from services including the Centre for Student Support Services and the SRC. The Unit also used arts activities to encourage in-kind contributions and appointed a task team to manage the programme. This earlier work shows that responses to hunger have involved different parts of the campus community over time. [C08, Historical public article]

In 2025, students also contributed to food support beyond the University. On 18 March, hundreds of volunteers gathered in UWC’s Student Centre to pack 40,000 meals with Rise Against Hunger. The meals were intended for children in early childhood development centres in the Cape Town region. UWC’s Centre for Student Support Services was part of the initiative, combining practical volunteering with awareness of food insecurity. [C09, Supplied PDF p.1; public article dated 18 March 2025]

Rise Against Hunger explained that supplying fortified meals to unregistered early childhood development centres could reduce their food costs and help them invest in improvements towards registration. UWC’s contribution was the volunteer meal-packing event. The 40,000 figure counts meals packed, while the partner’s wider service reach covers its own network. [C09, Supplied PDF p.1; public article]

UWC’s Student Centre during the Rise Against Hunger meal-packing event on 18 March 2025. Credit: University of the Western Cape; individual photographer not identified. Image source.

Growing food literacy through a campus living laboratory

In October 2024, the Dietetics Department opened a vegetable and herb garden outside the Dietetics Building. Third-year BSc Dietetic and Community Development Nutrition students developed the garden with lecturer Elsabe Nel and UWC’s Gardens and Grounds Department. The project used a previously underused area and included indigenous edible and medicinal plants. [C10, Public article dated 23 October 2024]

The garden connected nutrition teaching with practical food-growing experience. In the October 2024 launch account, student Tumisho Malahlela described seeing carrots harvested from her group’s container. Fellow student Caleigh Hanekom reported learning to identify vegetables and medicinal plants. Academic staff presented the site as a living laboratory for sustainable food systems and community-oriented learning. The account proposed expanding the garden through broader student participation so that it could become a source of fresh produce for food-support beneficiaries. That expansion was a proposal, distinct from the teaching garden already opened. [C10, Public article dated 23 October 2024]

Researching the campus food environment

Research published in 2025 examined how students experienced food choices in UWC’s campus cafés. Tinashe P. Kanosvamhira’s study drew on 2024 fieldwork with 112 respondents at five campus cafés, alongside examination of café menus. It found that affordability, convenience, proximity and food quality shaped choices, and that students often viewed healthier options as too costly or insufficiently varied. This research provides a basis for understanding access barriers rather than assuming that the presence of food outlets makes nutritious food affordable for everyone. [C11, Published article pp.4–10; PDF pp.5–11]

The study recommended more affordable, varied healthy options and clearer communication about nutrition initiatives. Its convenience sample and selected menu analysis limit generalisation to the wider student body or all campus outlets. The findings identify priorities for improving the campus food environment. [C11, Published article methods, discussion and limitations]

UWC also took a step towards renewing its campus dining provision in 2025. On 2 April, it announced the appointment of Nigel Pietersen of The Food Hub Eatery to operate the second-floor Student Centre Dining Room, with affordable, healthy meals for staff and students as the stated aim. The announcement welcomed the appointment and looked forward to reopening. [C14, operator appointment, 2 April 2025]

Understanding food waste through residence research

A 2025 master’s thesis by Lisakhanya Nqaba investigated solid waste at UWC’s Basil February and Chris Hani residences. The waste audit ran from 30 September to 4 November 2024 and sampled 10% of bins at each residence. It separated avoidable food waste, unavoidable food waste and garden waste within the organic category. A three-person team weighed collected bags, sorted their contents into defined categories and recorded results daily before transferring them to a spreadsheet. [C12, Thesis printed pp.53–57; PDF pp.67–71]

The thesis also examined students’ and workers’ views through data collected from November 2024 to April 2025, and recommended regular audits and improvements to waste management. The measured waste came from two self-catering residences in 2024. It is a concrete example of partial campus research measurement, with a different scope from an operational system covering food served by University caterers. [C12, Thesis printed pp.7–8, 70–74 and 82; PDF pp.21–22, 84–88 and 96]

Reducing losses by understanding food spoilage

Food security also depends on preventing food from spoiling before it can be eaten. UWC’s August 2025 profile of biotechnology researcher Dr Arina Hitzeroth described her investigation of Chryseobacterium and its interaction with other spoilage organisms, including microbes that grow in cold conditions. Supported by a National Research Foundation grant and a team of three students, the work seeks to understand the mechanisms behind spoilage and inform strategies for keeping food fresher for longer. [C13, Supplied PDF pp.1–2]

By investigating how spoilage organisms behave, the research aims to inform ways of keeping food fresher for longer. The 2025 profile also describes postgraduate training and international collaboration. It reports ongoing research and intended applications, without a measured reduction in campus kitchen waste. [C13, Supplied PDF p.2]

Dr Arina Hitzeroth at work in a laboratory, accompanying UWC’s August 2025 food-spoilage profile. Credit: University of the Western Cape; individual photographer not identified. Image source.

Food security through research, practical knowledge and partnership

UWC’s contribution to food security extends from laboratory and field research to the everyday systems through which people grow, trade, prepare and obtain food. The Centre of Excellence in Food Security (CoE-FS), hosted by UWC and co-hosted by the University of Pretoria, brings these perspectives together through research, capacity development and knowledge exchange. Its work connects the biological and technical questions of food production with nutrition, livelihoods, institutions and the unequal distribution of resources. The Centre was established in 2014; the examples below distinguish activity reported in 2025 from the earlier work on which it builds. [F01, About: institutional role and host/co-host]

This connected approach also reaches across UWC’s faculties. A 2025 School of Public Health call identified the Food Environment Research group as a collaboration between Dietetics and Nutrition, the School of Public Health and CoE-FS, led by Professor Rina Swart. Its proposed fellowships focused on the National School Nutrition Programme and indigenous and neglected crops. These priorities place food security alongside the quality of diets, children’s food environments and the contribution of locally relevant crops. The call describes planned research-capacity development rather than completed project results. [F22, Opening description; fellowship conditions]

Working with farmers and food producers

In August 2025, the Food Safety for Africa project, supported by CoE-FS, delivered Good Agricultural Practices training in Gauteng. Three workshops involved nearly 100 farmers affiliated with the Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. Working with the University of Pretoria’s Drama Department, organisers converted an illustrated guide into interactive theatre. Farmers discussed familiar production challenges, tested possible responses and helped develop solutions, linking food-safety requirements with the practical demands of entering formal markets. The account credits the joint initiative rather than UWC alone. Online short courses with the University of Leeds were still in development when the August report appeared. [F02, Learning through Theatre; Research into Practice] [F26, August 2025 workshop confirmation]

Earlier work provides a longer view of direct engagement. CoE-FS’s 2022 report records regenerative-agriculture workshops offered by Professor Ndiko Ludidi’s laboratory to smallholder farmers in Ward 22 of Matatiele during August, September and October 2022. It also describes Professor Marshall Keyster’s work sharing soil-analysis findings with Eastern Cape farming communities and collaborating with GrainSA. These activities connected scientific investigation of soil condition and plant health to decisions that growers face in preparing for a planting season. [F11, KPA 5: Service Rendering, printed p.106; Scientific Contributions, printed p.116]

The 2023 report records further engagement with Eastern Cape farmers and government agencies around regenerative cultivation and underused African crops. Smallholders participated in student fieldwork on intercropping in Matatiele, and the Centre reported examples of farmers beginning to adopt the practices. Across its wider research network, the report also describes training for food-processing enterprises in Limpopo on product development and food-safety systems, and training for about 50 farmers in Mzinti and Makoko, Mpumalanga, on adding value to cowpeas, orange-fleshed sweet potatoes and Bambara groundnuts. A solar-dryer construction manual was translated into three South African languages to improve accessibility. These are documented earlier contributions to farmer and producer learning, retained here with their reporting years. [F10, Science engagement, items 7–14, pp.88–89]

Participants in Good Agricultural Practices training reported by CoE-FS in August 2025. Credit: CoE-FS; individual photographer not stated. Image source.

Local knowledge and indigenous food systems

A July 2025 CoE-FS account describes a Community of Practice convened with the Sustainability Institute’s Local Wild Food Hub. It brings growers, cooks, traditional knowledge holders, community activists and researchers into shared exploration of the edible plants of the Greater Cape Floristic Region. The discussions connect nutrition and climate resilience with access to land, cultural memory, biodiversity and the ethics of using community knowledge. [F03, Opening; Shaping new pathways from emerging insights]

The account traces the process from a stakeholder-mapping workshop in 2022 to a 2023 round table and a May 2024 gathering that included a walk through the indigenous food garden. Small-scale growers organised in agri-hubs, community-kitchen cooks and community co-researchers contribute distinct forms of knowledge. Participants also confront questions about who benefits when plant knowledge is documented or commercialised, and which sacred or traditional knowledge should remain protected. By 2025, the stated direction was to deepen surrounding communities’ participation and support participant-led groups for further learning and practical engagement. [F03, Creative and inclusive approaches; concluding paragraphs]

Shared discussion around local wild foods, pictured in the July 2025 Community of Practice account. Exact event day unverified. Credit: Storm Meintjies and Loubie Rusch / CoE-FS (article-wide photograph credit; individual allocation unverified). Image source.

Learning with the Breede Valley

The Breede Valley demonstrates why food security cannot be understood only through the volume of agricultural production. In March 2025, CoE-FS reported the Worcester premiere of Harvesting a Valley of Resilience: Challenges and Solutions from the Western Cape. Produced through collaboration with CIRAD and the UrbanFOSC project, with local media company Lucentlands Media, the documentary explores food insecurity within a productive farming region. It draws on researchers, municipal officials, community organisations and people involved in horticulture, fruit, poultry, early childhood development and local livelihoods. [F04, Opening; Understanding local food systems]

The Worcester screening was followed by a panel discussion on structural inequalities, circular-economy practices and community responses. Municipal representatives and the founder of Khulisa Food and Nutrition Security were among the panellists. Members of Compassionate Hearts, who had participated in the Touws River learning journey, joined the screening and discussion. The event brought research back to local stakeholders and created another opportunity to debate possible responses. [F04, Addressing challenges through dialogue; photo caption]

A peer-reviewed study published in August 2025 examines the learning journeys undertaken in the Breede Valley between 2019 and 2024. Participants moved through local food environments and met people directly affected by food-system problems, bringing officials, researchers and communities into the same conversations. The study identifies links between food, land, water, informal trade, early childhood care and seasonal livelihoods. It records commitments to support food gardens with training and inputs, explore a local fresh-produce market and develop municipal early childhood development arrangements. Some follow-through was reported, including a municipal task team and progress in registering some centres. The authors also emphasise that sustained follow-up and relationships are essential. [F05, Overview, PDF pp.2–3; New perspectives, PDF p.4; Commitments and Discussion, PDF pp.5–6]

Local stakeholders at the Worcester premiere of the Breede Valley food-security documentary, reported in March 2025. Credit: Riaan West / CoE-FS. Image source.

Open learning about urban food systems

The Food4Cities collaboration translated research into an educational resource beyond a single research site. CoE-FS and KU Leuven developed a five-week, self-paced Urban Food Systems online course launched on edX in March 2023. The launch announcement made access to the learning content free to stakeholders and the public, with an optional paid completion certificate. The course drew on work in Worcester and Kampala and collaboration involving UWC, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, KU Leuven and Makerere University. Its themes included mapping food systems, understanding urban growth, examining alternative futures and participatory planning. This earlier resource illustrates how research can be made available to a wider audience; the 2023 launch should be distinguished from a claim about a specific 2025 course offering. [F12, Course launch, access conditions and Food4Cities description]

Research can also challenge assumptions about where locally produced food goes. UWC alumnus Tinashe Kanosvamhira’s January 2024 account of research at 34 Cape Flats community gardens found that much produce was channelled to commercial outlets. He argued for distribution through local markets, community kitchens, school feeding and neighbourhood residents. The work highlights the importance of linking production to access within the communities where food is grown. These are research findings and recommendations, alongside the gardens’ own work and the support supplied by government and civil society. [F15, Gardeners’ stories; Collaboration is central]

Technology for resilient production and reduced food losses

UWC participates in AGRI-COOL, an international project developing solar-powered cold-chain technology for agricultural settings. The consortium assigns UWC leadership of the work package on tailoring the systems’ operating parameters. This links university expertise with the practical challenge of keeping perishable food in suitable conditions where energy supply, climate and local use requirements vary. [F06, Work Packages and Leadership: WP2]

At the consortium meeting on 10–11 June 2025, partners visited refrigeration research laboratories and the first operational AGRI-COOL demonstrator at Genius Watter’s premises in Italy. The cold room combined solar power, temperature monitoring and phase-change-material backup intended to maintain cooling overnight. It had been built and tested in Italy and was intended for the project’s Somali demonstration site. This milestone concerned a multinational technology-development project, with UWC contributing through its assigned work package. [F07, Meeting report; first commissioned cold room; features]

On UWC’s own campus, work was under way in April 2025 on the Green New World demonstration project, led by the Energy Storage and Fluid Treatment Centre within SAIAMC. The project was designed to combine crop cultivation and solar power with water purification, irrigation and cooling. UWC reported that trainees were helping develop its first phase. The demonstration platform was at development stage, with construction dependent on municipal approval; the first AgriPV training course was scheduled for 2026. [F27, construction-stage account, 16 April 2025]

A separate 2025 synthesis from FSNet-Africa brought together findings from 19 case-study projects conducted between 2021 and 2024 in six African countries. UWC researchers Frederic Isingizwe and Osden Jokonya were among its authors. The synthesis connected five research areas: governance, indigenous crops and African foods, sustainable production by smallholders, consumer preferences, and food loss and waste. Its examples show why technology needs to fit local institutions and livelihoods. Smartphone-based agricultural tools, for example, must accommodate users’ language and familiar measurements; storage and supply-chain improvements depend on coordination as well as equipment. The paper also recognises the limits of its network-based sample and researcher-led synthesis. Its contribution is a comparative research agenda informed by earlier projects, rather than a claim that all proposed innovations were adopted in 2025. [F13, Abstract; sections 2.1–2.3 and 3.1]

AGRI-COOL consortium participants inspect a demonstrator room in Vicenza, Italy, June 2025. This is not a UWC-campus installation. Credit: Photographer not identified. Image source.

Crop science and food-safety research

A January 2025 Scientific Data paper by UWC-affiliated researchers and international collaborators made proteomic information available on sorghum’s responses to drought, heat and the two stresses together. The study compared leaves and roots from two contrasting sorghum genotypes. It drew on the 2020–2021 cropping season at the Plant Stress Tolerance Laboratory’s research station in Lukholweni in the Eastern Cape, with associated datasets deposited in 2024. By publishing these data, the team created a resource for investigating the biological pathways that may contribute to stress tolerance. It is a foundation for further crop research. [F16, Methods; Data Records; publication information]

Food security also depends on safe food. In September 2025, UWC profiled chemistry graduate Dr Andisiwe Ngwekazi’s doctoral research, supervised by Professor Priscilla Baker, on highly sensitive chemical sensors. The research combined cucurbituril with electrochemical and spectroscopic techniques to detect histamine in red wine and dopamine in synthetic human serum at very low concentrations. It points towards possible food-testing and health-monitoring applications; the public account describes research capability and potential, rather than deployed consumer devices. [F18, Research description and applications]

Within the joint CoE-FS network, University of Pretoria graduate Dr Degracious Kgoale investigated microbial safety in informal leafy-vegetable supply chains. The June 2025 account describes sampling vegetables, soil and irrigation water from small-scale farms and examining how contamination could move through production and distribution. CoE-FS supported her research and access to scientific networks and laboratory tools. The work reinforces the importance of food safety across the whole chain, while remaining specific to the farms and samples studied. [F25, Making the invisible visible; Bacteria deep-dive; recognition]

Developing the next generation of food-system researchers

UWC hosted the first UKUDLA Summer School from 14 to 24 September 2025, in partnership with the University of Hohenheim, University of Pretoria, University of Mpumalanga and the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources. UKUDLA, the African-German Centre for Sustainable and Resilient Food Systems and Applied Agricultural and Food Data Science, connects postgraduate research with the analysis of complex food-system challenges. The programme brought master’s students together with doctoral researchers, postdoctoral fellows and academic staff for seminars, practical sessions and interdisciplinary exchange. [F08, About the Summer School, printed p.2]

The programme connected analytical methods with local food systems. On 15 September, a Food Imbizo at UWC, facilitated by Florian Kroll, brought diverse stakeholders into participatory discussion. Sessions addressed urban food-system modelling, systems thinking, stakeholder engagement, responsible research and the water–energy–food relationship. A 17 September Breede Valley field visit combined local history, food storytelling, a school cookout and community interaction. [F08, Programme and day-by-day highlights, printed pp.4–13]

UKUDLA’s public launch took place on 16 September at the District Six Homecoming Centre. Partners discussed food justice, data science and connections between local knowledge and international policy. Together with the summer school, the launch established a setting for postgraduate training, research collaboration and exchange with stakeholders around food-system problems. [F09, Public launch at the District 6 Homecoming Centre]

INSERT IMAGE: uwc-sdg2-ukudla-summer-school-group-work-2025.jpg

Collaborative group work pictured in the Centre of Excellence in Food Security’s account of the UKUDLA Summer School 2025. Credit: Centre of Excellence in Food Security; this image has no visible individual photographer credit.. Image source.

Land, livelihoods and collective action

UWC’s Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) examines food systems through questions of land, natural resources, work and inequality. Its published Strategic Plan 2025–2030 identifies agro-food restructuring and livelihoods as a research priority and proposes community expertise, short courses and accessible research resources as part of teaching and engagement. The plan also recognises capacity constraints and the need for further detail on responsibilities and implementation. Its next-steps section refers to finalising and approving the strategy, so it is used here as a planning source rather than proof of an adopted food policy or completed service. [F19, Section 4.1.3, printed p.8 (PDF p.9); Goals 2–3, printed pp.13–15 (PDF pp.14–16); Section 6, printed p.20 (PDF p.21)]

PLAAS’s thirtieth-anniversary Land, Life and Society conference, held from 7 to 9 October 2025, brought researchers, civil-society participants and public officials together around agrarian change and justice. South African and Colombian ministers participated, and the programme included parallel discussions and field engagement. A Cape Town declaration emerged as an advocacy contribution towards the planned 2026 International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development. The event connected scholarship with debate about the distribution of land and resources, the position of farmworkers and small producers, and more equitable rural livelihoods. [F20, Conference dates; ministerial participation; concluding declaration]

PLAAS also published Land Availability and Land-use Changes in Africa 2025. Its analysis questions the assumption that higher agricultural production automatically leads to better access to food. The report considers how land rights, income distribution, gender relations and political institutions influence whether people can obtain nutritious food. This broadens the food-security conversation beyond yields alone and situates agricultural change within people’s rights and livelihoods. [F21, Executive summary, printed p.6 (PDF p.8)]

Supporting food-related enterprise

UWC’s entrepreneurship support also reached food-related enterprise. In a June 2025 profile, Shaun Cairns described participating in the UWC–Sanlam entrepreneurship cohort and obtaining trading space at the UWC Trading Incubator. His business, named Seed 2 Harvest in the article’s body, worked on organic fertiliser and household food-growing initiatives. Cairns credited the programme with developing his pricing, revenue-model and financial skills as the business expanded into Lesotho and Zambia. This is an example of entrepreneurship incubation. [F14, Entrepreneur profile and programme support]

Connecting food research with policy and public dialogue

A Food Security Dialogue was held at UWC on 26 August 2025, co-convened by SA-TIED, the National Planning Commission’s Agriculture and Food Security Task Team, CoE-FS and research partners. It brought a pre-selected group of policymakers, researchers and practitioners together to consider water, energy, infrastructure, financing and governance in South Africa’s staple-food systems. The meeting operated under the Chatham House Rule. The event contributed to dialogue on food-security policy. [F24, Event description and co-convenors]

A November 2025 CoE-FS report describes a further exchange co-hosted with the Food Equity Centre at T20 South Africa. Building Equitable Food Systems from Below brought researchers into conversation with activists, unions and farmworker organisers. Participants considered Brazil’s participatory food-governance experience, South African food-affordability organising and the Women on Farms Project’s work on labour conditions and hazardous pesticides. The exchange placed the knowledge and experience of people who produce and obtain food alongside formal policy analysis. Brazilian family-farming procurement featured as a comparative example, rather than as a description of UWC’s own purchasing arrangements. [F23, South–South Exchange; Brazil; Women on Farms]

Procurement and the responsible use of resources

UWC’s published Procurement Policy records a Council amendment on 27 March 2025, reference C2025/01. Its general principles include environmental preservation, pollution reduction, responsible use of natural resources and supplier development. The control table retains the original 19 March 2008 implementation date, while clause 3.1 leaves commencement of the amended policy to Council. [P01, PDF pp 1, 11–14]

References

[P01] University of the Western Cape. Council amendment 27 March 2025. UWC Procurement Policy C2025/01 including infrastructure framework addendum.

[P02] University of the Western Cape. 2025 reporting year; signed in 2026. UWC Annual Report 2025.

[C01] Carmel Roberts, Institutional Advancement. 28 August 2025. Student Voices Expose The Hidden Crisis of Food Insecurity in South African Universities.

[C02] Carmel Roberts, Institutional Advancement. 18 July 2025. The Fix Supports #UDubsCares.

[C03] University of the Western Cape. 7 April 2022. Tiger Brands Alleviating Food Insecurity At UWC.

[C04] University of the Western Cape. Undated visible article; embedded web date 27 July 2020; describes 2017 launch. UWC and Tiger Brands Launch Food Security Programme.

[C05] University of the Western Cape. 8 October 2024. UWC Is Combatting Student Hunger in October.

[C06] Nathan Adams, Institutional Advancement. 17 October 2024. UWC Unites with Corporate Partners, Staff, and Alumni to Fight Student Hunger on World Food Day.

[C07] Nathan Adams, Institutional Advancement. 20 November 2024. The Fight To Combat Hunger Continues.

[C08] University of the Western Cape. Historical article; narrative describes approximately ten years after 2007. The Gender Equity Unit helps struggling students.

[C09] Quinton Mtyala, Institutional Advancement. 18 March 2025. UWC students volunteer to pack 40 000 meals for needy children in ECD centres.

[C10] Institutional Advancement; photographs Harriet Box. 23 October 2024. University of the Western Cape Follows Global Trend in Establishing Its First Food Garden.

[C11] Tinashe P. Kanosvamhira. 18 May 2025. Nourishing Minds: Understanding student dining preferences and perceptions of healthy eating in campus cafés.

[C12] Lisakhanya Nqaba; University of the Western Cape. 2025 thesis. A comprehensive solid waste audit in UWC residences: awareness, views, and waste management amongst university students and waste workers.

[C13] Harriet Box / University of the Western Cape. 20 August 2025. The Science Of Food Spoilage With Dr Arina Hitzeroth.

[F01] DSTI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Food Security. Undated institutional description. About the Centre of Excellence in Food Security.

[F02] Kelly-Eve Koopman / CoE-FS. 24 August 2025. Bridging Gaps: GAP Training for Small-Scale Farmers in Gauteng.

[F03] Megan Lindow / CoE-FS. 10 July 2025. A Community of Practice grapples with the complexities of local wild indigenous food.

[F04] Carla Bernardo / CoE-FS. 20 March 2025. CoE-FS launches documentary on food security in the Breede Valley Municipality.

[F05] Scott Drimie and Julian May / South African Journal of Science. 11 August 2025. A learning journey approach to food security in a South African foodshed.

[F06] AGRI-COOL consortium. Undated. AGRI-COOL Work Packages and Leadership.

[F07] AGRI-COOL consortium. 16 June 2025. AGRI-COOL Consortium Meeting in Vicenza.

[F08] UKUDLA. 2025 report; public posting November 2025. UKUDLA Summer School 2025 on Sustainable Food Systems and Data Science in Africa.

[F09] Kelly-Eve Koopman / CoE-FS. 19 September 2025 displayed. UKUDLA Summer School 2025: Aligning Local Knowledge and Global Policy for Food Security.

[F10] DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Food Security. 2023 reporting year; 2024 public file. CoE-FS Annual Progress Report 2023.

[F11] DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Food Security. 2022 reporting year; 2023 public file. CoE-FS Annual Progress Report 2022.

[F12] Carla Bernardo / CoE-FS. 3 March 2023. CoE-FS, KU Leuven launches Urban Food Systems MOOC.

[F13] S. Y. Dorvlo and co-authors / Journal of Agriculture and Food Research. 19 August 2025 online. Transforming African food systems: perspectives from the Food Systems Network for Africa (FSNet-Africa).

[F14] Harriet Box / UWC. 25 June 2025. UWC-developed Entrepreneur Expands Business to Lesotho.

[F15] Tinashe P. Kanosvamhira / UWC; originally The Conversation. 26 January 2024; original 15 January 2024. Healthy food is hard to come by in Cape Town’s poorer areas: how community gardens can fix that.

[F16] Ali Elnaeim Elbasheir Ali, Robert E. Sharp, Laura Greeley, Scott C. Peck, David L. Tabb and Ndiko Ludidi / Scientific Data. 17 January 2025. Proteomic dataset of sorghum leaf and root responses to single and combined drought and heat stress.

[F17] Carla Bernardo / CoE-FS. 30 January 2025. New sorghum study crucial for addressing climate-related challenges.

[F18] Harriet Box / UWC. 16 September 2025. Wearable Devices Could Help Alleviate Food Poisoning, Headaches, and Allergies.

[F19] Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, UWC. Plan period 2025–2030; public file December 2024. PLAAS Strategic Plan 2025–2030.

[F20] Quinton Mtyala / UWC. 13 October 2025. PLAAS Marks 30 Years With Conference On Land, Life, And Justice.

[F21] PLAAS, UWC. 2025. Land Availability and Land-use Changes in Africa 2025.

[F22] UWC School of Public Health. 20 February 2025. Postdoctoral Fellowships 2025: Food Environments (Two Positions).

[F23] Kelly-Eve Koopman / CoE-FS. 19 November 2025. Building Equitable Food Systems From Below: Lessons From Brazil, South Africa, and the Region.

[F24] UNU-WIDER. 26 August 2025 event. Food Security Dialogue: Towards a Shared Agenda for Action.

[F25] Kelly-Eve Koopman / CoE-FS. 11 June 2025. Dr Degracious Kgoale’s mission to improve food safety in informal markets.

[T01] University of the Western Cape, Student Development and Support. Reporting period 1 July–30 September 2025. Nutrition and Wellness Program: programme description in the Tiger Brands Partner SSED Quarterly Report. Institutional source retained on file.

[C14] University of the Western Cape, Institutional Advancement. 2 April 2025. Exciting New Chapter for UWC Student Centre Dining Room.

[F26] FoodSafety4Africa. 11 December 2025. Strengthening Good Agricultural Practices through workshops and theater.

[F27] Nathan Adams / University of the Western Cape. 16 April 2025. A Green New World Loading at UWC.

Procurement policy source sections

The following text reproduces the published C2025/01 control information, cover metadata and complete sections 2–5, plus the complete linked clause 8.4. Original wording, punctuation and typographical errors are retained. These sections explain the general governance context only. The control table records the original implementation date of 19 March 2008 and the amendment dated 27 March 2025; clause 3.1 provides for commencement on a date determined by Council.

Source P01 • UWC Procurement Policy • Council amendment 27 March 2025 • original PDF pages 1, 11–15 and 18. The public source is cited in the references.