For the people taking part in FoodForward SA’s Food Gardens Connect Programme, the gardens are becoming much more than places to grow vegetables. They are providing access to food, creating opportunities to work and learn, and giving participants a greater sense of purpose and connection to their communities.
Before joining the programme, Andiswa was unemployed and would help at Hlumani Projects’ kitchen wherever she could. Today, she works full time in the kitchen and garden. She receives a meal from the organisation and can also pick vegetables from the garden to feed herself.
“I am so grateful,” she says. “I have always loved garden work and now I am happy.”
Her hope is simple: to keep growing. “I want this garden to continue to feed me.”
For Anele at Mfesane in Khayelitsha, the change has been more unexpected. She had never been interested in gardening and knew very little about it before the programme began. Now, tending the garden has become part of her routine and something she looks forward to.
“The gardens have to be watered every day in the early mornings and I enjoy coming here watering the gardens and relieving my stresses. I love to see the progress of the vegetables growing from seedling.”
The harvest is also being put to work in the community. Vegetables are used in the organisation’s kitchen to feed children, while participants can take produce home to feed their families.
At Imfuneko Projects in Masiphumelele, Thanduxolo describes an even more fundamental change. Before FoodForward SA’s involvement, he was struggling to feed himself. Today, he oversees the garden, making sure it is watered and cared for.
“I feel happy because now I have something to do,” he says.
The food grown there is helping meet immediate needs while also creating a small income opportunity. The harvest is eaten by participants, used in the soup kitchen and sold to local vendors.
“I have power now that there is the garden that I can eat from. I live because of this garden. It feeds me.”
These experiences show what Food Gardens Connect can mean beyond the garden itself. With the right training, resources and support, a space can become a source of food, skills, work and opportunity, while the people caring for it become part of creating greater food security in their own communities.
Across participating organisations, gardens are being established and expanded, with participants putting new knowledge into practice through sustainable growing methods, composting and improved garden management.
As the programme develops, the aim is to grow not only more food, but the capacity of communities to produce and benefit from it.
