Sixty-five-year-old Thembeka Tsizi is bearing the fruits of her labour.
Tsizi is feeding her family, neighbours and generating an income from the produce of her home vegetable garden.
Tsizi, along with 150 households in Mbekweni (between Wellington and Paarl) are benefiting from the successful rollout of the Food Security and Agricultural Livelihoods Program (FSALP) food garden project.
The project is run in collaboration with the CPUT Agriculture Department and local non-profit organisation Wagon of Hope, and is funded by the WesBank division of First Rand Holdings.
Senior Lecturer in Agriculture, Francios Lategan, says the project was initially rolled out in 2014 to 84 households and this year was extended to include 150 community members, with up to 1 000 people benefitting, either directly or indirectly. To date, the project is a huge success.
Aimed at ensuring food security and improving household nutrition, the project has two phases. The first phase entails the the distribution of equipment and seeds, while the second sees CPUT Agriculture students and members of Wagon of Hope provide different means of support to participants.
Community members participating in the project, such as sixty-three-year-old old Noah Marinus, says it has made a huge impact on his lifestyle.
“It was always my desire to have a big garden of my own,” says Marinus.
“Every day is interesting because I keep on learning new things.”
Marinus has taken his vegetable garden one step further, having constructed his own green house where he cultivates and propagates plants and seedlings at cost price to the community.
In Mbekweni, sixty-five-year-old Leonard Nkamana says he no longer has to purchase pricey vegetables.
From harvesting beetroot to spring onions and potatoes, Nkamana says his vegetable garden is his pride and joy.
Putuma Meje from Wagon of Hope welcomes the project and says is compliments their organisations activities, which includes advocating proper nutrition to households in the community.
Meje says apart from households, they have extended the initiative to include several crèches and other smaller community projects in the area, who have established vegetable gardens on their premises.
Several members of the community, who do not have access to land, have also started vegetable gardens on vacant land at the local police station.
“We can see how this project benefits our community,” says Meje.
