Durban is gearing up to join Cape Town and Johannesburg as a host city to a FoodBank, which aims to address urban hunger by collecting donated food at a central warehouse from where it can be distributed.

The banks, which are affiliated to the Global FoodBanking Network, which has affiliates in 14 countries, sorts donated food into nutritionally balanced parcels which are then distributed to NGOs who feed the hungry.

A FoodBank was launched in Cape Town in March and another in Johannesburg in April. The Durban FoodBank is scheduled for launch on 21 July. A FoodBank is also planned for Port Elizabeth by September.

The model brings together industry, NGOs and government in a coordinated approach aimed at getting food to the hungry.

FoodBankSA executive director Geoff Penny said the Cape Town and Johannesburg FoodBanks were already distributing an estimated 20,000 to 25,000 meals a day. A survey was still being conducted to establish how many meals would be provided in Durban.

He said it was estimated that there were 14 million people in South Africa who were food insecure, meaning they did not know where their next meal was coming from.

Durban FoodBank executive director Muzi Nkala said the initiative would enable organisations helping the hungry to "speak in one voice".

In the past, different NGOs had "knocked on the same doors" asking for the same donations.

Nkala said that, based on figures of food items previously provided by a partner organisation in Durban, the Durban FoodBank would initially benefit 48,000 people served by 93 NGOs.

He said the food would be distributed to the needy identified in poor communities, children's homes, orphans, the disabled and the ill.

A fleet of eight trucks would collect donations from various suppliers.

FoodBank Johannesburg executive director Jan van der Walt said since opening in April, over 354 tons of food had been distributed.

The bank allowed NGOs to concentrate on their core business such as caring for the elderly or sick, rather than having to worry about sourcing food for them, he said.

In Cape Town, FoodBank executive director Patrick Andries said the bank was rolling out a primary school feeding programme known as Lunch Buddies, which collected extra sandwiches from learners at affluent schools and then redistributed them to an impoverished beneficiary school.

Based on a previous programme called Bread Buddies which had been run by a FoodBank partner NGO, Lunch Buddies distributes 4,000 sandwiches and 4,800 pieces of fruit per week to schools.