Every year on Mandela Day, South Africans are encouraged to spend 67 minutes giving back in honour of Nelson Mandela’s 67 years of public service. Across the country, people will volunteer their time, donate goods, clean public spaces, and support those in need. These are all valuable acts of service that strengthen our communities and remind us that each of us has the ability to make a difference.

Tomorrow, The Noakes Foundation team will also be spending our 67 minutes serving our community. We will be at Dunoon Community Health Centre, working alongside Eat Better South Africa to help people better understand chronic disease and the role that food, movement, sleep, and other lifestyle behaviours play in shaping metabolic health.

The difference is that, for us, this is not something we do only on Mandela Day.

Every week, we work with individuals, families, and communities to improve nutritional literacy and equip people with the knowledge and practical skills needed to make healthier choices within the realities of their own lives. We believe that education is one of the most powerful tools we have for tackling the growing burden of chronic disease, not because knowledge alone changes behaviour, but because meaningful and lasting change is almost impossible without first understanding why it matters.

For many people living with type 2 diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and other chronic conditions, healthcare has understandably focused on managing disease once it develops. Yet many people have never been given the opportunity to understand what is happening inside their own bodies or why seemingly small, everyday decisions about food, sleep, stress, and physical activity can have such a profound effect on long-term health.

The greatest barrier to better metabolic health is often not a lack of motivation. It is a lack of understanding.

When people begin to understand why they feel hungry all the time, why blood glucose rises after certain meals, why sleep influences appetite, or why highly processed foods make it harder to maintain good health, something important begins to change. The conversation moves away from the blame and guilt game and towards curiosity, confidence, and practical action.

This is exactly what we see through Eat Better South Africa.

People do not simply leave with a list of foods to eat or avoid. They leave with a better understanding of how their bodies work and why their choices matter. That understanding changes the way they shop, influences what comes into the home, shapes what is cooked for dinner, and often sparks conversations with partners, children, neighbours, and friends. Before long, the knowledge that started with one person begins to spread far beyond the individual.

That is one of the most rewarding aspects of community education. Its impact is rarely limited to the person sitting in front of you. Knowledge has a remarkable way of travelling through families, workplaces, and communities, creating ripple effects that are difficult to measure but impossible to ignore.

This Mandela Day, we would like to encourage everyone with an interest in health to spend 67 minutes sharing what they know with someone else.

You do not need to be a doctor, dietitian, or researcher to make a meaningful contribution. You could help a family member understand a nutrition label, prepare a healthy meal with a neighbour, explain why sugary drinks have such a powerful effect on blood glucose, or simply have a conversation about how lifestyle influences long-term health. If you have completed an Eat Better South Africa programme, perhaps your 67 minutes could be spent sharing what you have learned with someone who is only beginning their own journey.

The most powerful thing about knowledge is that it doesn’t stop with the person who receives it. It changes conversations around the dinner table, influences what children grow up eating, spreads through families and communities, and is passed from one person to the next.

That is why 67 minutes spent sharing knowledge today has the potential to change the next 67 years of someone’s life. At The Noakes Foundation, that is the kind of change we are working towards every day of the year.