As the people of the rainbow nation glory in Bafana Bafana's defiant defeat of France in the World Cup and an unmatched sense of national unity and pride, we do so knowing that the party won't last forever - and that there'll be a proverbial hangover (thanks to our having overshot the budget by several billion rand).
Apparently, however, this hangover will be worth it. Favourable world opinion and improved infrastructure will be a lasting legacy, we've been told. And, of course, it's impossible to put a price tag on the solidarity and patriotism galvanised through the hosting of this event.
Surely, this alone will yield a return on investment that all South Africans, rich and poor, will enjoy for decades to come.But what our pulling off the world's biggest sporting spectacle demonstrates to all South Africans here and now is far more powerful.
It shows us what we can achieve in a relatively short period of time when we work together towards a common goal.
As one newspaper editor puts it: "It tells us that the right combination of government will, government cash and private sector enterprise can deliver."
This is not news to public-private partnerships such as FoodBank South Africa (FBSA). Thanks to "government will, government cash and private sector enterprise" coupled with the passion and dedication of a bunch of social entrepreneurs, FBSA feeds 66 000 hungry South Africans every day.
In its first year in operation (2009/10), this relatively small Section 21 company distributed to the needy 5.6 million kilograms of food valued at R76 million. This equates to close to 19 million meals at a cost to FBSA of less than R1 a meal.
South Africa is a food-secure nation in that we produce enough food to feed our population, yet tragically 14.4 million people are vulnerable to food insecurity, due to poverty and lack of access to food.
The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation defines food insecurity as inadequate physical, social or economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food which meets the dietary needs and food preferences necessary for an active and healthy life.
Enshrined in South Africa's constitution is the right of every citizen to have access to sufficient food and the right of every child to basic nutrition, among other things. South Africa is also a signatory to the Millennium Development Goals, the first of which is to halve hunger and poverty by 2015.
Given the magnitude of the job at hand, we realise that feeding 66 000 people a day is little more than a promising start.
In order to realise its vision to eradicate hunger in South Africa, FBSA needs to upscale its operation significantly and to move from having food banks in four major cities - Cape Town, Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth and Durban - to all major cities.
Though new to South Africa, food banking is practised in about 40 countries worldwide. It involves the redistribution of surplus food in the supply chain; the cost-efficient procurement of nutritious food for the poor; and equipping the poor to become large-scale producers of food.
Food banking is very much about collaboration: collaboration with the right people to create the scale necessary to eradicate hunger.
In his opinion piece entitled Perhaps same old problems need new solutions carried by this newspaper last week, Walter Baets, the director of University of Cape Town's Graduate School of Business, highlighted South Africa's need of leaders - in business, government and civil society - "who recognise they have a duty to think creatively about the country's challenges and to be prepared to act on their beliefs".
With the support of such creative leaders who are willing to act on the belief that no South African needs to go hungry, FBSA has been set up to succeed.
FBSA's board of members is representative of government, big business and civil society. It includes Edna Molewa, the Minister of Social Development; William Mzimba, the chief executive of Accenture South Africa; "Venkat" Venkatachalam, the managing director of Kellogg Company South Africa; Gail Klintworth, the chairperson of Unilever; Suzanne Ackerman-Berman, the transformation director of Pick n Pay; and food security activist and cleric Bishop Malusi Mpumlwana.
Without the likes of the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund, Pick n Pay, Unilever, Kelloggs, Woolworths, Albany, Nestle, Parmalat, Clover and Fruit & Veg City - and many other funders, food manufacturers and retailers, FBSA would not be able to feed the hungry.
Over the past 20 years, the proportion of the world's people who are hungry has declined, but sub-Saharan Africa is the only region where hunger is increasing, according to a 2005 report by the UN Millennium Project's Task Force on Hunger.
South Africa has close to 100 000 non-government organisations (NGOs). It's not feasible for government to partner with all of these organisations, but it is possible for these NGOs to network and support each other. FBSA partners with about 1 200 NGOs that work directly with the hungry.
In addition to supplying them with food, we also require that they have development plans that build self-reliance rather than dependence.
FBSA's sustainable solution to food insecurity is a rural food banking model that is in development phase. The rural food bank will dispense food to the rural poor in the same way that an urban food bank does, but furthermore it will also mentor and train small farmers with a view to increasing their production and take their produce to the open market.
The objective is to enable the rural poor to transition from being the net buyers of food to the net producers of food.
This model aims to provide a comprehensive solution to the lack of adequate food, jobs and markets in the rural areas.
It would help create sustainable livelihoods and self-reliance, rather than dependency, and go a long way in the fight against poverty.
The Task Force on Hunger makes seven recommendations for achieving the target of halving world hunger by 2015.
They are: move from political commitment to action; reform policies and create an enabling environment; increase the agricultural productivity of food-insecure farmers; improve nutrition for the chronically hungry and vulnerable; reduce vulnerability of the acutely hungry through productive safety nets; increase incomes and make markets work for the poor; and restore and conserve the natural resources essential for food security.
We believe that food banking is a move from political commitment to action; by partnering with the right people we can and (we) are creating an enabling environment; food banks in rural areas have the potential to significantly increase agricultural productivity, increase incomes and make markets work for the poor; food banks are providing a safety net for the acutely hungry; and by using food banks to distribute the right food, we can improve nutrition for the chronically hungry and vulnerable.
We believe that together we can eradicate hunger and halve poverty in South Africa.
Jeroen de Lijster is the managing director of FoodBank South Africa.
