Community food gardens across South Africa have another opportunity to grow their impact, with Shoprite’s second Act For Change Food Garden Competition opening for entries on October 20.

Five winning gardens will share R1m in tailored support, while each winning garden will receive tailored support, determined through a needs assessment.

This could include training, garden resources and infrastructure that will help the garden grow and increase its harvests for the community.

The Act For Change Food Garden Competition looks at more than how much food a garden produces.

Judges also consider its broader social impact in the community, the skills it shares, how it operates, improving food security and the positive difference it makes to the people it serves.

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“Our purpose is to uplift lives every day by pioneering access to the most affordable goods and services and creating economic opportunity,” said Sanjeev Raghubir, chief sustainability officer at the Shoprite Group.

“Community food gardens bring that purpose to life in a very practical way. They put fresh food within reach, create opportunities for people to learn and earn, and bring communities together.

“Through this competition, we want to recognise gardens already doing that work and give them support to grow.”

To enter the Act For Change Food Garden Competition, entrants must be aged 18 or older and represent a community-based food garden.

Private home gardens, private companies, and close corporations are not eligible. Entrants will need to provide a short description of their garden’s history, purpose and role in the community, as well as photographs of the garden.

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The competition is open to all eligible community food gardens. Entries close on November 15, and winners will be announced before April 2027.

Enter online at actforchangefoodgardencompetition.datafree.co – entry is free and no data costs apply.

The inaugural competition attracted nearly 600 entries, and since the winners were announced in March, the gardens have put their support to work in different ways.

For the 2026 competition, Shoprite hopes to attract even more gardens already doing valuable work in their communities and seeking support to develop it further.

This forms part of Shoprite’s broader work with community food gardens, which reached a milestone of 300 supported gardens in July 2026.