Mlungisi farmers’ food garden plan
Five community members from Mlungisi have embarked on an initiative to establish vegetable gardens at local clinics and schools with the aim of running soup kitchens and supplying fresh produce for school feeding scheme programmes.
The group, who call themselves Ababo and Partners, are subsistence farmers striving to fend for themselves in the community, with plans to start a fresh produce cooperative if their pilot project succeeds.
The five are Mzuvukile Sibelekwana, Phumezo Isaac, Mlungisi Witbooi, Goodman Faku and Vusumzi Mazibuko.
Sibelekwana, who is leading the programme, said the partners stood for the clinics, schools and other institutions with which they would be working.
So far they have managed to start a garden at Philani Clinic in Mlungisi, where they plan to set up a soup kitchen for people in need.
“We all own gardens in our yards, but we decided to look for bigger pieces of land in schools and clinics,”he said.
“We want to see what will come out of the initiative. If all goes well, we will start a cooperative and register it.
“This is where we’ll prove ourselves as subsistence farmers.”
Sibelekwana said they had received the go-ahead at Philani Clinic after putting forward a proposal to the clinic’s committee and its officials.
“We told the clinic committee members and officials we wanted to work with them to run a soup kitchen in the health facility. “
He said removing weeds from the garden had taken them a month as the soil was extremely hard before they could start the planting process.
Sibelekwana said they had recently approached the principal of Thembelihle Primary School, where they hoped also to educate pupils from an early age about the importance of gardening and tilling the land.
“Agricultural lessons used to be given to pupils many years ago. Pupils can also sell the produce for school fundraising.
“The principal has shown a lot of interest and told us he would inform staff, the school governing body and department of education about the matter. The clinic community would also notify the health department about the project.
“We are looking for assistance in terms of gardening resources from local businesses for equipment like fences, tanks, tools, seedlings and tractors. At the moment we are volunteers with the aim of registering as cooperatives in the long run.”