For 12 months, people in Langa have exercised their green thumbs with skills that’ll feed their community and last a lifetime.
Langa, South Africa (26 July, 2023) — Over the past 12 months, environmental and community champions Greenpop and Urban Harvest Edible Gardens teamed up for a powerful project! The Family Food Garden Programme in Langa has been a great success that’s not only helped cultivate farm-to-table mindsets, but community collaboration!
The first full month happened back in August 2022 and already in its seedling stage, Ubuntu began to grow with the greens.
The project was implemented as a fresh take on helping rural areas flourish in sustainable ways by taking control of food security in their own very own gardens.
About the Family Food Garden Programme
Farm-to-table food resources, knowledge and skill-sharing are the soil of the programme while what really waters it is showing people how much they can accomplish when working together. Non-governmental organisation Fair Food AA — the SA Urban Food + Farming Trust as well as non-profit JDC also helped all the goodness come to life.
12 Months of Wholesome Efforts
Month after month, green knowledge, skills and time were passed between the teams leading the programme’s efforts and the Langa participants.
Some of what they learnt included the groundwork for successful gardening, tips and tricks to manage pests and the 101 on biodiversity magic (including how to use biodiversity to act as pest control so no garden flops).
Edible efforts were possible early on and by October participants were already learning how to make their own pesticides.
“Like a seed, their knowledge was planted, cared for, and nurtured, and now they’re reaping the benefits of their hard work,” shared Greenpop of the progress.
The final month of the Family Food Garden programme in Langa happened recently and in the last stretch, one of the most important skill sets was shared—reaping the fruit of one’s labour through entrepreneurship education.
Greenpop counted that 131 people were trained in home food gardening—131 more people who can now teach others, feed their families and help their community grow.
The Foundation adds: “We are so proud of the Langa cohort and we cannot wait to work with more people from the Langa community.”
This is not Langa’s only effort to create edible gardens either. Look at the former dumpsites transformed into vegetable plots here.
by 