Battling it out for a N$150 000
Eagle’s Den hears social proposals
The top 5 proposals of the second phase of the Capricorn Food Waste challenge battled it out on stage on Thursday to pitch their ideas to a group of judges.
From using food waste to create compost and using seafood waste to create a food alternative to using an app to collect all food waste items, the participants in this year’s Capricorn Foundation Food Waste Challenge wore their passion on their sleeves during the Eagle’s Den pitch event.The Impact Tank Analysis Foundation from Windhoek, proposes to collect food waste at homes. "Sixty percent of all food waste occurs at the household level,” said Tatenda Gumbo. After collection, it will be turned into compost. The compost will then be sold to the Namibian market, and can lead to soil improvement and better crops in the future.
SuperFly Bio Converters, from Windhoek, focuses on sustainability by nature, including food waste recycling, sustainable insect protein products, and natural fertiliser. Entrepreneur Oliver Bause said insect protein is gaining acceptance worldwide as a food source. “Food waste is converted into natural high protein animal feed with better performance through nature’s recyclers, the black soldier fly.”
Ndasilohenda Katangolo-Nakashwa of Ndinandali farm, operating in Opuwo, developed a unique approach to preserving the nutrients in fresh produce during Covid-19. “We realised during the pandemic that people could not come to the market to buy our produce. We had a lot of waste,” she said. She now dries several vegetables like cabbage, tomatoes, and spinach, which can now last for 12 months.
From the coast, Nova Research Consultancy (NRC) aims to address the issue of hunger and poverty. According to Victoria Erasmus, seafood can play a major role in reducing hunger and at the same time creating employment opportunities. “In a society that is unemployed and food insecure, 40% of all fish products are wasted.” They want to set up a workstation to use seafood heads and livers to make food products for human consumption.
From Rundu comes team leader Eddy Ngonga with the Eagle Foodhub app. According to him, there is a large disparity between food waste and hungry masses. “The app will connect those with surplus food like restaurants, with those in dire need of food supply, like orphanages and old age homes,” Ngonga said.
Judges are deliberating and scores are being calculated for the winner to be announced on 13 July, walking away with N$100 000 cash prize and N$50 000 from Synergi for a brand refresh.