Chef Elijah Amoo Addo, the founder of Food for All Africa in Ghana, – West Africa’s first and largest foodbank, recently visited our Gauteng branch to gain insights from our operations and adapt these strategies to their operations.
“Anytime I get the opportunity to visit FoodForward SA (FFSA), it’s like visiting my big, successful uncle,” Elijah quips.
“I started our Foodbank in 2014 and at that time the only similar organisation I was able to come into contact with on the continent of Africa was FoodForward SA. I monitored FoodForward SA from afar (and) I saw how it transitioned from Foodbank SA to FoodForward SA today.”
“With the support of the Global Foodbanking Network (GFN), in 2019, I was fortunate, together with a group of six other foodbanks on the continent, to visit Cape Town to see how foodbanking works. “Since then I learned a lot from Andy (Du Plessis, FFSA Managing Director) and Khamil (Hiraman, FFSA National Operations Manager) who have become like my big successful uncles, providing advice, training and technical support,” says Elijah.
The Turning Point in Elijah’s Journey
Elijah founded Food for All Africa after witnessing a mentally disabled man scavenging food from a hotel trash bin to feed himself and his mentally ill friend.
“I find more solace in cooking for people so I ended up as a chef,” he says.
“The turning point in my chef life into now feeding vulnerable people was when, as a young chef working in a hotel in Accra, I came into contact with a mentally disabled man who would take leftover food from the hotel’s bin and then go to the street and feed his friend.
“He did this daily like it was his job. One day I asked him, ‘Why do you do that, don’t you think people will get sick?’ His response was ‘If I don’t do it then who will?”
“(After that encounter) I spoke to my boss and (instead of throwing the leftover food away) we started a foundation to feed hungry people. The more I explored the relevance of our work (redistributing surplus food), that’s when I discovered FooodForward SA,” he says.
Challenges and Key Takeaways
Following the launch of their second foodbank, Elijah cites coordinating operations between the two branches as one of their biggest challenges.
“I always admired FFSA for doing so well with nine branches across the country.”
“Whenever I visit the FFSA Cape Town branch, I see how operations from the head office trickle down to the other branches so efficiently and effectively.
“The purpose of my visit to Johannesburg was to gain a first-hand understanding of how FoodForward SA coordinates (operations) its various branches. The inventory management at FFSA is amazing, and the staff’s passion is so contagious. I love coming to visit here,” says Elijah.
FFSA Managing Director, Andy Du Plessis says: “It is always a pleasure to host our fellow FoodBankers on the continent, and especially Elijah, because he and several of his management team visit FFSA regularly so that they continue to learn and grow. It is exciting to see how Food for All has developed and matured over the years, and we also learn so much from their experience.”