Mitchells Plain community activist Joanie Fredericks, along with Seed To Harvest Visionary Shaun Cairns, hopes to instil hope through gardening. Supplied
Cape Town - With the aim of combating household hunger, Mitchells Plain community activist Joanie Fredericks, along with Seed To Harvest Visionary Shaun Cairns, hopes to instil hope back into the community through their household farming initiative.
The pair along with Angel Network will launch their household gardening initiative on Wednesday, with 40 families across the impoverished community.
The duo who met during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic again found themselves putting their heads and hands together after realising that feeding scheme lines were growing at an alarming rate.
Cairns, who is a farmer, said the community garden was a trial to their pilot to be launched.
“We decided to take the organic farming models to a household level. The families have committed to be part of the initiative. We will be training them over a period of 12 months broken up into four cycles.
“The first being training and handing out of tools and seedlings, the second we will mentor them and begin the growing cycle, the third will be harvest season and the fourth we will do re-seedling,” he said.
Cairns added that the main aim is to combat household hunger in 2024.
“We wanted to find a way to get these families out of the food queue in a sustainable way.
“We are also teaching them entrepreneurial skills, we have asked them to put in a R30 for every harvest, this they can do by selling a bunch of produce from their own garden, it also teaches them a sense of responsibility,” he said.
Cairns added that the growers will be planting seasonal vegetables, 40% starch, 30% leaf, 30% root, which will all be based on the basic human nutrition requirements.
Fredericks said: “We hope that in the end more communities can join in and even start a market together where they share produce and ideas, but first we need to build our foundation.”
She said they hope that the project instils hope in the community.
“We want these growers to understand that we are not just here to feed them but to regrow hope so that they can replant that seed in other families as well. We hope that this encourages a culture of sharing, even though we know that some households' needs are much greater and won’t be able to.
The Angel Network Western Cape said they joined hands to alleviate the “dependency model”.
“The need for sustainability is growing exponentially, especially when there is increasing donor fatigue.”
Anyone who wants to help this cause can contact Shaun or Joanie on: 061 520 8519 or 076 621 0245.
tracy-lynn.ruiters@inl.co.za