On Tuesday, 3 June 2025, SERI launched a report entitled ‘Food for Thought: Reflections on Food (In)Security. Laws, Experiences, Interventions’. The report aims to better understand how some of SERI’s partners and client groups have been affected by, and responded to, food insecurity and hunger issues. SERI’s research focused on the experiences of the leadership and the experiences of members as conveyed by leaders of the following partners: the Inner City Federation (ICF), the South African Informal Traders Forum (SAITF), the African Reclaimers Organisation (ARO), the Commercial, Stevedoring, Agriculture and Allied Workers Union (CSAAWU), Izwi Domestic Workers Alliance (Izwi), and the Slovo Park Community Development Forum (SPCDF).
The views of partners are contextualised through a conceptual framework for understanding food insecurity, a brief description of its scope and key drivers in the South African context, and what South Africa’s obligations are under international law and how the government has attempted to address food insecurity through laws, policies, and programmes.
The final section of the report draws all of these strands together in a set of conclusions and recommendations that include, among others: an expansion of social support; more transparent and comprehensive monitoring of food prices; a potential subsidy for people to be able to access an affordable, nutritious basket of food; continued support to those who are growing their own food; support of informal traders who are key to the food system; the enforcement of the minimum wage for domestic workers and farm workers; efforts by everyone in the food system to minimise food waste; and ultimately the just transition of the South African food system.
Access the report here and a standalone executive summary here.