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Food Gardens Foundation dates back to the June '76 riots, when Joyce Niland, a farmer’s wife, and Pauline Raphaely, a geologist, realized just how serious the food shortage was in Soweto. The two ladies decided to pool their knowledge for the benefit of the children and communities in the stricken township.
They started the organization with R100 that Pauline borrowed from her husband and, escorted for their own safety, began work at Sowetan schools, which seemed relatively secure. Their concept: the creation of easily maintained vegetable gardens on a very small scale, using the trench-bed method. This calls for a trench of up to 500 mm deep, which is knee high, measuring one metre by two metres - the area of a normal domestic door.
 The trench is partly filled with organic material including newspaper and other rubbish that will decompose. The soil that was removed is then shoveled back on top of the organic rubbish and planted with up to nine rows of seeds. Food Gardens Foundation makes affordable seed available so as to keep the cost of the food garden as low as possible. Since there is no need for fertilizers or pesticides, costs really are minimal. In fact, it costs between R50 and R80 a year for a family garden of four vegetable beds, and this can include the cost of a spade. Plastic shopping bags and bottles, tin cans, orange bags, cardboard cartons and newspaper all have their place in food gardening.
According to Food Gardens Foundation, the method is very easy and environmentally friendly. Each trench bed can be used for about five years before it needs to be re-dug and started over. The gardens are ideal for people who have very meager resources, and they provide very nutritious organically grown vegetables such as spinach, carrots, tomatoes, squash, and many other fuss-free crops. Grain amaranth, beans, beetroot, brinjal, cabbage, chillies, cucumber, green pepper, lettuce, marrows, leaf mustard, leek, lucerne, mealies, parsley, pumpkin, radish, squash, soup celery, sweet corn, and turnip are ideal. In addition to this, the gardens require very little water and can be established in the smallest of township gardens.
Naturally, the method is equally suited to rural homes as well as community groups such as women's organizations, youth, health workers, schools, churches and men's groups. In addition, many companies use the Food Gardens Foundation concept for the training of workers who are retiring, those who might be retrenched, or to improve the workers' skills base and enable them to transfer these skills to other people at their homes and within their communities.
 Food Gardens Foundation offers numerous services including a support network for fieldworkers and facilitators, educational information and material, and training in the form of workshops and follow-up visits. The body also offers information on nutrition, food preparation and processing, and menu planning as well as support and training for small-scale entrepreneurs and urban agriculturalists.
As for the management of this non-governmental organization, the Foundation is driven by a management committee that includes all internal stakeholders including staff and directors. The committee meets on a six-weekly cycle (probably 10 times a year). It receives reports on each of the eight activities identified on the management structure chart. This committee sets and monitors goals. The overall control of the organization is in the hands of the Board, which meets separately only when a need to do so is identified.
The Foundation is headed by Chief Executive Officer, Hilda Pheto, a Registered Nurse with qualifications and extensive experience in Community Health.
How To Plant My Own Food Garden
1. Measure the bed, 2 metres x 1 metre
2. Dig the bed knee-deep
3. Half-fill with rubbish. Wet the rubbish. Use only rubbish that will rot.
4. Cover the rubbish with soil. Subsoil first. Make the bed 10cm higher than the ground (topsoil)
5. Cover with mulch (Dry grass, or you could use dry leaves, dry cut grass, newspapers, stones.
6. Plant four or 5 kinds of vegetables. Make 9 rows, about 20 cm apart.
7. Water and protect the bed
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Food Gardens Foundation contact detail:
Website: www.foodgardensfoundation.org.za
Telephone: 011 880 5956 |
