From the heart of rural East London, Phumeza Stuurman is turning age-old food wisdom into nourishing bone broth, creating opportunities for women and showing how one simple idea can become a recipe for hope and community growth.
East London, South Africa (26 June 2026) – From something as simple and easy to overlook as bones, Phumeza Stuurman saw a way to tackle rural poverty in her community while creating opportunities for women and young people who have long been economically excluded.
Bone broth has been consumed by diverse cultures for centuries and has seen a resurgence in modern times, highly valued by wellness advocates and consumers for its natural collagen, amino acids and minerals, which support joint health, gut health and digestion, healthy skin and hair, and immunity.
Inspired by this heritage-rooted approach to wellness, Phumeza founded Rural Impaqt Bone Broth. Together with her all-female cooking team in the village of Nxarhuni on the outskirts of East London, she transforms animal bones, often-discarded agricultural by-products, into nutritious bone broth made fresh weekly and delivered to a growing list of loyal urban customers in the East London area.
The chicken and beef broths are slow-cooked over open fires in the traditional African way, maximising nutritional value while honouring a familiar food tradition.
“We are bringing what our grandmothers knew back to the table, in a format that meets modern food safety standards and consumer desires to live well and eat well,” said Stuurman, who is a participant in the second edition of the East London programme of the Stellenbosch Business School’s Small Business Academy (SBA).
Beyond offering a nutritious whole-food alternative, the business has also created a waste-to-nutrition pipeline in Nxarhuni, generating jobs and wages that were not previously available.
Like many inspiring visionaries who come out of our country, Stuurman saw an opportunity in what already existed around her and made the most of it. After relocating back home to East London for family responsibilities following a 15-year public sector career in financial management in Gauteng, she found a way to build something meaningful while creating opportunities for other women along the way.
“Inspired by the African term ‘vukuzenzele’, meaning ‘wake up and do it yourself’, I saw untapped potential in the wisdom and resources that we already have in our rural community, rather than focusing on what we lacked.”
Sources: Supplied
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