Roots & Shoots Clubs - Food Gardens

Working in close partnership with SANParks, JGI South Africa has launched a series of food garden workshops for teachers in rural schools in the communities bordering the Kruger National Park.

The ongoing project is intended to encourage teachers and learners to start their own food gardens. Once they are producing enough vegetables for themselves, they will be able to sell the extra produce, using the funds generated to buy more seed, so that the projects become self-sustaining.

Delegates leave these practical workshops with instruction material as well as vegetable seeds – all they need to start food gardens at their own schools.

The project is ongoing – workshops are held six times a year, new teachers are trained, and schools are re-visited to check on progress and provide guidance where needed.

Wish List

The schools targeted by this project are rural schools in the communities surrounding the Kruger National Park. Facilities and infrastructure are very basic. For example, Magudu Primary School, venue for the first workshop this year, has only one tap to service the entire school and surrounding community. It has electricity, but no computers. In spite of this, it boasts a model food garden, the surplus produce from which is sold to the community. Funds pay for pupils’ extras like school tours and sporting activities away from the school.

The Jane Goodall Institute is looking for total sponsorship of R65 000 (or R5000 per school) to fund the Food Gardens project.

We would like to be able to supply each of the 13 schools involved in the first year of the project with equipment for the gardens, including hosepipes and spades, as well as a greater variety of seeds (we do have a seed sponsor, but we would like more diversity), and fruit trees.

The first workshop was held in February this year. Workshops will be held every two months during the first year of the project. The April workshop will address any problems that teachers come across in initiating their food gardens, and find solutions. Once the vegetable gardens are established, fruit tree-planting workshops will be held. After one year we hope that the first schools will all be self-suffient and we can then identify the next groups of schools.

More detailed information on the initial workshop

The Food Garden Project kicked off this year with a workshop at Magudu School, in Ireagh B Trust, near Hazyview, about 120km from Nelspruit.

Teachers and heads of department from 13 schools in the area attended the workshop which was facilitated by Solly Themba, Community Facilitator for Sanparks – Kruger National Park. It was run by Luke Mdluli who hails from the Hazyview area and has a diploma in agriculture, specifically plant production, from the Mangosuthu Technikon in Durban.

Magudu Primary School boasts a magnificent food garden. The school has won numerous environmental awards, and is an environmental resource centre for the area. This is largely due to the passion of principal, Joyce Mabaso, and the school’s environmental committee.

Magudu’s vegetable garden is totally organic, and is cared for by teachers and pupils. Its surplus crops are sold to the community, with the funds ploughed back into the garden and the school.

Delegates at the interactive Food Garden workshop, held at the school on February 23, learnt all about food crops, from planting seedlings to making organic compost.

Email Us | Write: Roots & Shoots Program, Jane Goodall Institute South Africa,
P.O. Box 166, Morningside, 2057, Republic of South Africa

legal & privacy | terms & conditions | site map | JGI SA