The Stellenbosch University Food Security Initiative provides a platform on which a range of research projects has been developed, spanning different faculties and departments, including the health sciences, agricultural sciences, engineering, and the social sciences. Drawing on a selection of these projects, some of which are published in a special section of this issue of Food Security, the paper highlights key emerging findings and their implications for future work in this field in South Africa. It incorporates a range of perspectives on food security in the country, highlighting different dimensions of the subject. The paper argues that a systemic approach is required to address food insecurity in South Africa, combining rigorous disciplinary and interdisciplinary research with effective approaches to research-policy linkages and social learning. The review concludes that such an approach should be institutionalised at Stellenbosch University to inform the emergence of a resilient food system for the region in the 21st Century.