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Constantia Food Club (CFC) was recently announced as one of the South African winners of the small businesses and non-profits who have won a share of the global small business platform, Xero’s, R8 million global prize pool for “Innovating for sustainability” as part of the inaugural Xero Beautiful Business Fund competition.
Constantia Food Club (CFC) was recently announced as one of the South African winners of the small businesses and non-profits who have won a share of the global small business platform, Xero’s, R8 million global prize pool for “Innovating for sustainability” as part of the inaugural Xero Beautiful Business Fund competition.
There are 28 winners overall, including four South African winners who were recognised for best demonstrating, in a 90-second video, how they would use the funding to support their future. They had to show how they plan to support their business goals in one of four categories – Innovating for sustainability; Strengthening community connection; Trailblazing with technology and Upskilling for the future.
Courtney Atkinson, co-founder of CFC, said: “It’s been inspiring to see how our work is connecting more families with small food producers and farmers, and creating a healthier, more sustainable food system. This funding from Xero will help us grow not only our own operations but also those of the Food Club network — unlocking exponential change. We’re so excited to pursue this next stage in our business.”
About Constantia Food Club
CFC is a food buying club that connects small local growers and producers directly with customers in Cape Town since March last year. The club aims to support local regenerative farmers to help reduce biodiversity loss, promote sustainable food production and create a decentralised food system.
“CFC took off immediately. Our sales have grown over 500% in that time – a number we’re especially proud of as our suppliers set their own prices (no haggling here!) and farmers receive 75% to 85% of the sale price, compared to the 37% they would receive selling the same goods via retail.
“I grew up on a farm and have always had a keen interest in food, nutrition and health,” Atkinson reminisced with People’s Post.
“When our first child came along I wanted to feed our family nutrient-dense, chemical-free food, but I found little to no choices in our supermarkets.”
A friend told her about Food Clubs as a way to access organic/chemical-free produce from small, local suppliers all from a single place, once a month. “I found a club in Meadowridge and later joined a second club in Newlands – they each gave me access to a different selection of suppliers.”
As Atkinson was later diagnosed with an auto-immune condition, this meant that she needed to rid her diet of toxins and her food choices became even more important. “By this time I was rather fed up with there not being a club in Constantia and so I decided to start one! At the time, both my children were starting school, but we didn’t want to lose our wonderful nanny, Noma Matoko-Louemba. I asked her if she’d be keen to start the club with me and Noma said yes!”
CFC is part of a network of over 30 food clubs across South Africa, all operating through the Food Club Hub platform. This platform is established as a non-profit organisation (NPO), Atkinson noted, as it serves to support regenerative farmers and food club hosts in creating a decentralised food system. Each individual food club is commonly run as a business, whether as a sole proprietor, CC or Pty. “In the case of the CFC, it is operated as a separate business entity.”
Decentralised Food System
When asked to explain the concept of a “decentralised food system”, Atkinson said she will never forget growing up that some of the produce grown on their farm in George would be harvested and trucked to a distribution centre in Cape Town “only to be driven back to the local retailer in George”!
Food Clubs look to shift away from this kind of centralised, industrialised model of food production and distribution, towards a more localised and diversified approach where production, processing, and distribution of food are spread out across various smaller-scale producers and regions.
“This entails promoting local and regional food production, reducing reliance on large, monoculture farming operations, and supporting smaller farms, community gardens, farmers’ markets, and other initiatives that prioritise community-based, sustainable, and resilient food systems.”
Decentralisation can help improve food security, reduce environmental impact, and strengthen local economies by fostering greater self-reliance and reducing the long-distance transportation of food. Food Clubs play an important role by providing producers with a market and members with a convenient one-stop-shop to access dozens of small local producers in one “shop”.
Launched earlier this year, the Xero Beautiful Business Fund seeks to help Xero’s small-business customers boost their growth plans and drive future success. More than 5 500 applications were received from Xero customers across South Africa, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore, the United States and the United Kingdom.
CFC as the winner of the Innovating for sustainability category also won a global prize of an additional R545 000, for a total of R795 000. They plan to use the fund to help build a new clubhouse, where they can serve more customers and provide additional support to growers and environment. However, “between entering this competition and being awarded this incredible prize, our Food Club grew even bigger, possibly even outgrowing the Club House we dreamt of. We’ll be taking some much needed time off over the festive season and regroup in the new year on our next steps. Watch this space!”
