Poverty relief through community food garden
Food gardens have become the one solution to poverty alleviation in communities. This became more evident during the covid-19 Pandemic where many communities went hungry.
EVATON. – The ‘Reach Out Community Project’ in Evaton, is one such project which helps the community in times of need.
The organisation this year partnered with Shoprite on their food garden which benefits more than 500 community members.
Marketing Director Pule Selai says, “We run numerous social outreach programmes, including a green door temporary shelter for victims of gender-based violence, early childhood development programmes and a drop-in centre which also provides needy families with food.”
Selai explains that the garden is central to many of these projects: “It is used to sustain some of the projects. The workers can take produce to cook at home when they need it. They also take produce to the nearby market to sell to generate an income.”
Selai says they’re very grateful that Shoprite has joined forces with them:
“We’ve already received seedlings, seeds, some equipment, fertilisers as well as extremely helpful training.”
Shoprite provides permaculture training over a period of 18 months to each of the gardens it assists.
“We have lots of land which we are cultivating. We grow a wide range of crops. We have learnt more about how to prepare the soil and take care of soil. If you don’t take care of soil, you can’t have good crops.
“We really want to stimulate an interest in farming in our community.”
