FOOD BANKING'S POWER TO RESCUE FOOD FOR HUNGER ERADICATION Christopher Isu Ogbonnnia, Food Rescue Manager, No Hunger Food Bank Abuja, Nigeria.

When a food bank implements its food rescue mission, the impetus drives its hunger eradication programmes among nutritionally insecure populations. Being a serial volunteer in Africa’s entrepreneurial sustainability space, 2022 has been productively eventful for me! First, I serve in No Hunger Initiatives (NHIs) or No Hunger Food Bank’s food rescue managerial role, hunting for yet-to-wasted but edible foods and safely distributing them to internally displaced and vulnerable Nigerians. More specifically, I collaborate with the NHIs' In-the-Field Department to rescue food by deploying the Global Food Banking Network (GFN) food banking principles and tools. Hindsightfully, I have been volunteering for NHIs’ food rescue activities for the past two years.

The innovative features of the No Hunger Food Bank (NHFB)'s Food Rescue Programme represent the future of food banking in Nigeria and the Global South. Unlike developed countries, which are characterized by an abundant food-loss-and-waste (FLW) system. Nigeria's agrifood space is assumed to lack a food surplus that will result in waste, justifying the premise that national food demand far outweighs supply at any given time in the country. However, much food waste still occurs in Nigeria,?especially in the finished food, fruits, vegetables, and other groceries space. The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development quotes a United Nations report on Nigeria's food wastage per capita as 189kg/year, which amounts to a national total of 37.9 million tonnes per year, the highest on the continent. Thus, one of NHFB's food rescue interventions during the outgoing year 2022 is the 'NoHungerFoodBankCleanPlateChallenge,' which aims to nudge zero-food-waste behaviour among Nigerians.

In my food rescue volunteering role at No Hunger Food Bank (NHFB), I contribute to Jumia Logistics Operations in Abuja, Nigeria. My detailed responsibilities at Jumia Nigeria include, among other things: receiving both small and large packages by scanning them into the Jumia Nigeria system; creating a run-sheet for food delivery Dispatch Riders (DRs); reconciling run sheet databases from DAs; sorting large and small packages into respective DAs; and finally, counting both small and large stocks, goods, and packages. Consequently, I have realised that the NHFB’s Food Rescue Programme(FRP) is much more than focusing on the severe consequences of food waste on maternal, child, and neonatal hunger. Instead, NHFBFRP addresses food rescue from climate adaptability, environmental sustainability, and national economy standpoints. Furthermore, with the emergency food crisis, which resulted in Nigeria being one of the world's hunger hotspots in 2022,?the NHFB’s Food Rescue Unit invested significant efforts in food sourcing innovation to combat the endemic hunger dilemma among vulnerable Nigerians.

While leveraging the GFN’s FLW programme, NHFB FRP aims to deepen its food rescue mission by collaborating proactively with national and global partners and governments. NHFB aims to enhance its food sourcing, collecting, sorting, storing, transporting, and delivering capacities in alignment with the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Agriculture, and Ministry of Transportation's stringent food safety standards and guidelines. My experiential learning at Jumia Logistics and NHFB proves the contributions of innovative technologies to advancing NHFB's food rescue mission. In 2023, would you partner with NHFB's staff, volunteers, and leadership to foster nutrition security among millions of hungry and homeless Nigerians while implementing its food-rescue mission? If yes, kindly message me directly or send an expression of interest (EOI) email to:[email protected]. No Hunger Food Bank wishes you a joyful holiday season and a Happy New Year!