Mbatini School the pride of Mpumalanga
Despite the limited resources in their communities, these schools aren't holding back when it comes to improving food security by growing their own food.
Mbatini Primary School in Calcutta was the provincial winner of the 2018 National EduPlant Competition.
The school was also featured in Hazyview Herald a few weeks ago when staff members of local Woolworths branches worked in its garden for a day.
The team of an educator and three learners from Mbatini Primary School were among the 66 finalist schools from across the country who gathered to compete in the biennial finals event, at which more than R430 000 worth of prizes were up for grabs.
The action-packed EduPlant finals event recently took place at Konka in Magaliesberg, an exciting school-friendly venue with excellent facilities for children.
Activities included bush walking, an evening bonfire culture experience, drumming and T-shirt art, as well as a variety of interactive, nature-friendly workshops.
EduPlant, the country’s leading food gardening programme, initiated and managed by Food & Trees for Africa (FTFA), has been sponsored by the Woolworths Trust over the past 14 years.
“Congratulations to Mbatini Primary School. We are very proud of the 2018 EduPlant winners and celebrate all the finalist schools,” said Zinzi Mgolodela, Woolworths’ director of corporate affairs.
“These schools represented the brightest lights out of 326 schools from all provinces that made substantial achievements in increasing their community’s access to nutritious food.
“With World Food Day celebrated on the October 16, it is wonderful to see South African school communities taking action towards #zerohunger in the country,” she continued.
“Despite the limited resources in their communities, it is inspiring to see that these schools aren’t holding back when it comes to improving food security by growing their own food.”
The 2018 World Food Day theme is “Our actions are our future”, and the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) is promoting a #zerohunger world by 2030. Millions of people are at risk of hunger every day in South Africa, so local food gardening initiatives such as EduPlant play an important role in increasing vulnerable people’s access to sustainably produced, nutritious foods.
“Over the past 24 years, EduPlant has gone from strength to strength as a champion of sustainable farming through school-based and cluster workshops,” said Robyn Hills, FTFA programme manager.
“Alongside our long-term partner, The Woolworths Trust, awareness and knowledge of nutrition and eco-friendly permaculture farming is built in communities where hunger is an issue for millions of South Africans.
“As we have seen at the 2018 EduPlant Finals, these schools’ food gardens supplement feeding schemes while educating learners about climate change, community resilience, healthy environments and natural vegetable production. EduPlant schools are taking effective action for a #zerohunger future.”
“The EduPlant finals are an inspiring event,” concluded Mgolodela.
“Achieving #zerohunger means working together to ensure that everyone, everywhere can access the safe, nutritious food they need for an active, healthy life. We commend the EduPlant programme as it is a great example of schools and communities taking action to improve food security by encouraging sustainable food growing, uplift education in schools and support the movement towards a #zerohunger South Africa.”
