The Enviro Solutions Centre is ending off the year with more than 6,500 seed packs shared to backyard food gardens across SA.
South Africa (19 November 2024) — Enviro Solutions Centre (ESC) is a grassroots NGO led by Steph and Mikal Lambert. For the launch of their seed-sharing project, Seed Share SA, they distributed 20,890 individual seed packs. This seed-sharing initiative distributes free basic vegetable seeds to thousands of backyard food gardeners all over South Africa. They hosted their inaugural seed-sharing event in Swellendam in 2023.
“We started by just focusing on supporting our immediate community and that led us to build relationships with many stakeholders in our local food system. When we opened our seed registration applications, the amount of interest was surprising at first and only increased with each distribution.” – Steph Lambert, Project Coordinator.
For their first seed distribution, Steph and Mikal supported more than 300 local backyard food gardeners in communities across Swellendam mainly; Railton, Suurbrak and Barrydale with variety packs of basic vegetable seeds.
Approaching their second seed distribution, the Lamberts opened registrations to gardeners wanting to support their community by distributing these vegetable seeds and coordinating the distribution. This uncovered a community of individuals across South Africa who were interested in sharing vegetable seeds with their communities. By February 2024, ESC, along with a group of 39 community workers, started mobilising more than 2,500 backyard food gardeners with packs of various vegetable seeds.
After these two successful seed distributions, Seed Share SA was launched.
Since Seed Share SA launched in July 2024, it has increased its network of community workers to 84 members, representing and supporting a network of more than 4,000 backyard food gardeners nationwide.
“For us its simply about every person wanting to grow their own food is supported with a pack of basic seeds. By keeping our barriers to entry low we are able to further our support with each distribution. These last few distributions taught me that there are more people than I can imagine willing to take food security into their own hands.”
Steph further highlights the keys to their successes:
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“Our movement in the food security sector is about finding the most rudimental resource that yields the highest benefit for all. Our methodologies have led us to put people and their personal power at the centre of the movement. We use seeds as a supportive resource to grow local community-led food systems. Using a digital platform, we have been able to interact with people on the ground, active in the development of the food system in their communities. The seeds we provide are tools for those community workers to further implement their local environmental solutions. Our peer-to-peer approach has revealed that we are just beginning to learn what great potential seeds have beyond their intended design.”
Mikal, the project Manager, adds:
“As we reflect on the progress of our initiative, a key realisation has been that to create any kind of sustainable change, we need many people working towards a shared vision from different positions. Our success has been to the credit of many people pitching in by donating financially as well as resource and service donations, most importantly our beneficiaries also contribute to the bill of running such a project. Our community workers cover the cost of the seed postage, which they collect from their network of food gardeners. Through this collective approach, we are made conscious that the longevity of our impact will be accredited to the collective shouldering of this movement.”
As food prices continue to soar, thousands of people are struggling to cover the cost of a basic nutritional meal. It is becoming increasingly clear that being only a consumer in the food system is a luxury that most cannot afford, and a solution to this struggle is to be participants as producers in our local food systems by growing at least some of our own food.
“All food systems start with seeds. By sharing seeds and encouraging everyone to grow some of their own food, we are actively supporting the local food systems all over South Africa. Our first step towards food security starts in the home garden. The garden is the space where the fruits of a food-secure community are germinated and established”, adds Steph
Their ambition is to support as many backyard food gardeners as possible with vegetable seeds within their capacity.
As planning and preparation for the next seed distribution begins, the couple has set their intentions on supporting 10,000 backyard food gardeners by the end of 2025 with 50,000 individual seed packs.
This can only be made possible by donations raised in their crowdfunding campaign on Thundafund, which aims to raise R35,400 towards the cost of seeds and packaging. Steph further detailed ways the public can participate in their movement:
“There are many ways people can support this movement. The first is to start a garden. The second is to make a donation of as little as R100 to our seed-sharing project. Thirdly is skills donations. Our organisation is made up of Mikal and myself, so we invite professionals who want to contribute their skills to improve our project and expand our reach to contact us. Fourthly, we also appreciate receiving resource donations in the form of bulk seeds, biodegradable packaging, and various other resources.”
Be a part of strengthening local food systems by making a donation towards the Seed Share SA Thundafund campaign here: https://thunda.fund/seedsharesouthafrika
You can follow this inspiring journey via Facebook and the website or email Steph here for ways to get involved.
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