We're a group of grade 9 students at Bishops Diocesan College in Cape Town. What started as a philanthropy assignment turned into something we genuinely care about: fighting food waste in our communities.
Birp is a Cape Town food-rescue initiative created by three Grade 9 students at Bishops Diocesan College: Joshua Fried, Joshua Dembaremba and Bonnar Richards. We started Birp because perfectly good food is often left unsold at the end of the day, while many people in Cape Town struggle with putting food on the table — so we wanted to reduce food waste while raising money to help fight hunger.
We were tasked to explore one specific problem space in our outreach class, Big Ideas. The process to finalising each group's project had three pillars: See, Think, Wonder. All three of us were passionate about tackling both hunger and food waste. We identified the obvious potential bridge between both of these issues and developed Birp.
Every bundle saved is methane that didn't enter the atmosphere. We measure our success in kilograms rescued.
We're built for South African communities — local stores, local farms, local people. Keeping value circulating here.
Great food shouldn't cost a fortune. Our deals make quality meals reachable for everyone, not just the few.
We believe young people can design real solutions to real problems. This project is proof of that.