The earth is facing an unprecedented environmental crisis which is severely impacting the health of our planet and the lives that exist within it. One of the many consequences of the crisis is food insecurity.
Food insecurity is driven by the inability of households to buy food and also by their lack of access to nutrient-rich food. Limited access to nutritious food in the correct quantities has multiple impacts including malnutrition, child stunting, and increased vulnerability to infectious and chronic diseases.
Soil for Life believes that EVERYONE has the potential to create sustainable food gardens that build healthy, fertile soils and promote maximum production of safe, nutritious vegetables in any available space.
The gardening methods we use in our community programmes and at our own Resource Centre in Constantia (Cape Town) focus on reinvigorating soil, saving water, improving biodiversity, creatively recycling and reusing waste, and ensuring that no damage is done to human or environmental health.
Since the start of our community programmes in 2002, over 7,600 people have participated in food gardening training. This has provided the potential for approximately 45,600 people (the gardeners, their families, friends and neighbours) to benefit from having access to healthy nutritious vegetables and knowledge about health and nutrition.
Soil for Life runs two community programmes:
• A Home Food Gardening Programme that teaches people in low-income communities how to grow food at home. The programme is made possible through the income we generate from our Resource Centre in Constantia and support from donors.
• A Community Food Gardening Programme that teaches groups of
people at community centres and schools how to grow food for their feeding schemes and/or to generate income. The programme is made possible through funding partners that cover the cost of training, mentorship, and inputs to establish the gardens.
During our training and support programmes, participants are taught how to grow food in all available spaces and how to identify and use the waste around them in their gardens. Organic waste – from teabags, to hair clippings, to shells and natural fibres – is returned to the soil to build humus and soil fertility, and large amounts of other waste is fashioned into tools and equipment needed in the garden. This approach provides an environmentally beneficial way of disposing of the city’s waste and a cost-effective way of building healthy soil teeming with microbial life and able
to give high yields of quality food from small spaces.
The group format of training provides a platform where people from diverse cultures integrate and communicate through a common interest. Strong networks and support systems develop in and between different communities, creating positive environments for poverty reduction (e.g. selling surplus food, swopping produce, using the Community Exchange System to barter surplus produce for other services).
The ability to grow food takes many people from a place where they can only provide their families with nutrient-poor starchy meals to those packed with a variety of fresh vegetables, new colours and textures. It also enables them to create small “green” patches of salvation in their communities and gives many a sense of purpose and pride that they have not experienced before.
Soil for Life’s Resource Centre is a major component of its income-generating activities. It houses an organic vegetable, herb and fruit garden; a nursery; compost-making and vermicomposting facilities; and two venues for training workshops. Income is generated through sales to the public and retail outlets as well as through gardening workshops and team building programmes.
To find out more about Soil for Life’s offerings: www.soilforlife.co.za
info@soilforlife.co.za
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