KFC Africa has revealed a new kind of secret recipe — one the world truly needs. In honour of World Food Day, the company has open-sourced the blueprint for its Add Hope initiative, South Africa’s largest non-governmental feeding programme, marking a major milestone in the fight against child hunger.
Unveiled on 7 October at The Biggest Hunger Hack in Johannesburg, the open-source Add Hope model invites global collaboration to scale its impact. The 16-year-old initiative has already provided millions of meals to vulnerable children through partnerships with feeding centres across the country.
Over the past week, 60 of South Africa’s brightest young innovators gathered at the University of Johannesburg to reimagine the Add Hope model and propose new ways to strengthen and expand its reach.
KFC Africa’s Head of Corporate Affairs, Andra Nel, said Gen Z’s insight and lived experience make them key partners in tackling hunger. “They truly get it because they’ve lived or witnessed it. They also understand technology, community, and systems thinking better than most. So we gave them our blueprint and challenged them to turn it into fresh solutions for even more hope,” she said.
Nel added that the ideas developed during the hackathon could help transform how society approaches hunger relief. “These ideas and the blueprint will make it easier for others to explore the recipe, share it and scale it. That’s a great way to mark World Food Day and honour its theme of global collaboration.”
A Billion Rand of Hope
Add Hope’s impact is powered by collaboration between KFC and its customers. Each time a customer donates R2 when ordering a meal, the funds combine with KFC’s own contributions to support feeding programmes nationwide. To date, the campaign has raised more than R1 billion — R600 million from the public and R400 million from KFC itself.
“We know collaboration is the only way to scale this fight even further and address the great need that still exists, which is why we invited leaders from business, government and civil society to join us at The Biggest Hunger Hack,” said Nel. “We’re hoping other organisations will heed our call to collaborate with us to scale what already works.”
KFC has already secured new partnerships with major brands including McCormick, Digistics, Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa, Foodserv, Tiger Brands, CBH, and Nature’s Garden.
Innovation Through Collaboration
The University of Johannesburg’s Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Professor Letlhokwa Mpedi, said the event demonstrated how young innovators could drive real change. “This collaboration is a prime example of how young innovators, equipped at the university, can develop practical, scalable solutions for societal impact. We look forward to seeing the tangible difference their ideas will make in alleviating hunger through innovation,” he said.
Panel discussions at the event highlighted the depth of the hunger crisis and the need for systemic collaboration. Gift of the Givers founder Dr Imtiaz Sooliman emphasised that poverty remains South Africa’s biggest challenge. “When you go to a disaster site, the first thing people ask for is food. That’s when you realise hunger has been there for days,” he said.
UN Women’s Siya Leshabane added that hunger limits children’s ability to learn. “Hungry children struggle to focus and retain information. Poor nutrition leads to fatigue. It’s a struggle for children to take themselves out of that whirlwind,” she said.
Luvuyo Sandi from Kagiso Trust said hunger cannot be separated from unemployment and lack of skills. “The reason this child is hungry has to do with household income issues, and beyond that unemployment. So our approach is to advance skills development and education.”
Dr Marc Aguirre, Country Director at HOPE worldwide, called child hunger a national development crisis. “We know it’s impacting our GDP by about 10%. Stunting is costing this country billions of rands. We need to look at addressing child hunger as an investment in the future, not only in the children of our country,” he said.
Experts agreed that the fight against hunger must evolve from isolated feeding schemes to integrated systems. “We need to move from food distribution to partnerships and ecosystems — from feeding to flourishing,” Aguirre said. Kefilwe Moalosi from the African Union Development Agency echoed this, calling for deeper investment in nutrition and malnutrition prevention.
A Gen Z Solution to Hunger
The ideas generated from The Biggest Hunger Hack will be refined and tested in the coming months, with KFC preparing a business-led proposal for a national convention in early 2026. The winning solution could receive up to R1 million in seed funding to bring the innovation to life.
“This is the first time a major South African corporation has open-sourced a successful social impact model, potentially revolutionising how businesses tackle social challenges,” Nel said. “We’re not just feeding children anymore — we’re feeding a movement with the potential to end child hunger for good. This is the secret recipe the world really needs.”
Read more about the Add Hope blueprint at https://addhope.kfc.co.za/
