Orphaned at the age of 12, Elijah Amoo Addo found refuge in the kitchen, an inheritance from his mother. He studied culinary arts in Lagos, Nigeria, and worked his way up through the ranks, from kitchen cleaner to chef in several restaurants in Accra, Ghana. One day in 2011, he met a mentally ill man who was collecting leftovers to feed his mentally handicapped friend on the street. Aware of food waste as a chef, he decided to found the Chefs for Change Ghana Foundation. In 2015, this initiative evolved into Food for All Africa, which is West Africa’s first food bank. Its aim is to create sustainable solutions to feed vulnerable populations. “My personal mission is to use food as a catalyst for socio-economic development on the African continent by leveraging technology to ensure sustainable and effective means of nutrition for all, and especially for the vulnerable,” he says. His efforts have earned him several distictions, including the Queen’s Young Leaders Award in 2017.
Association
Food for All Africa
Marked by his encounter with a man who salvaged food scraps to feed people in need, and shocked by UNICEF figures estimating that one in four children goes to bed hungry in most parts of Ghana (2015) at a time when 45% of food is wasted throughout the food supply chain, it was vital for Chef Elijah Amoo Addo to act. Thus was born Food for All Africa, West Africa’s largest food bank. Concretely, the association recovers surplus food from supermarkets, restaurants and other sources in Ghana and distributes it mainly to institutions for children, the elderly and the mentally handicapped. But Food For All Africa doesn’t stop at serving over 15 million meals to 153,000 beneficiaries. The organization also plays an educational role with its program to improve mother and child nutrition. It is also committed to developing local agriculture and structuring stakeholders in the food supply chain, in order to sustainably reduce waste.
