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Since 2017, Tiger Brands has made sure hunger doesn't stand between UWC students and a degree.

No student should have to choose between buying food and finishing an assignment. Yet for many at UWC, that choice is real. Long days on campus, tight budgets, and the cost of travel and textbooks can leave little or nothing for a proper meal.

Since 2017, Tiger Brands has stepped in. South Africa's largest food company, founded in 1921, believes that everyone should have access to good food. Through its Plates4Days partnership with UWC, it now provides 500 food hampers to students every month, packed with staples such as maize meal, oats, rice, pasta, vegetables, beans, peanut butter and soya mince.

"Food security is the foundation for everything else," says Preeya Naidu, Senior Manager: Social Transformation and B-BBEE at Tiger Brands. "A student who is hungry can't concentrate, can't sit an exam with confidence, and can't give their studies their best. If we can take that worry away, we give them the space to focus on what they came to university to do."

Preeya Naidu, Senior Manager: Social Transformation and B-BBEE at Tiger Brands. Image: Supplied

The results show what that space makes possible. By April 2024, 234 students who received support between 2018 and 2023 had graduated, and most of the other beneficiaries were still studying.

"Every one of those graduates is a story of resilience," says Naidu. "The food  is only one part of it. The determination is theirs. We're proud to have played a small role in helping them get across the finish line."

The partnership is part of a wider commitment. The Tiger Brands Foundation has served more than 150 million breakfasts to school learners since 2011, and Plates4Days carries that support into higher education.

"Our purpose is to nourish lives every day and every tomorrow," Naidu says. "For us, that means more than putting food on the table. It means helping young South Africans complete their education and take their place in the economy. That is what real transformation looks like."

The partnership has also shown how much is still unknown about student hunger. UWC sees a need for more research into student nutrition and food insecurity, locally and nationally, so that future support can be better targeted and more sustainable.

"Student hunger is a challenge no single organisation can solve alone," Naidu says. "We'd encourage other companies to look at what they can bring to the table."

As UWC prepares to celebrate 10 years of partnership with Tiger Brands in 2027, it is inviting other retailers and food-sector partners to join the effort: to tackle student hunger, support wellbeing and create the conditions for students to thrive. Tiger Brands has shown what partnership can achieve. Together, we can do more.