FOOD SECURITY
Implementing Food Gardens in Communities
BENEFICIARY:
Matt Kroll, Founder and Owner of Vuka Valley, has been investing his time every weekend, establishing a Foodscape Garden at The Lighthouse School in Banners Rest, Port Edward, Kwa Zulu Natal. To date he has received no funding. Volunteers are welcome but hard to find. This site is meant to show in a practical way what can be done to make food available at little effort and hardly any cost. It all began when retired Ward Councillor, Dave Watson, owner of the property, offered Matt the use of a section of his land with an eye to eventually allowing hungry passersby to pick and eat fruit and vegetables. Workshops at the school are intended to spread food gardening knowledge amongst learners, parents, teachers and anyone interested.
The Lighthouse Playschool, Banners Rest, Port Edward
BENEFICIARY:
The Ithuba School Mzamba is an independent primary school located at the Mzamba River Mouth in an underpriveleged rural area within the Wild Coast of the Eastern Cape, close to Port Edward.
Matt Kroll, Founder and Owner of Vuka Valley, with the permission of Jackie Du Toit, Director of the School, has voluntarily revived the food garden initiative of the school by installing a circular foodscape module with the intention of leaving an example for the students and teachers to be inspired to repeat. Vuka is planning a return visit to implement further training and demonstrations to maximise the output of vegetables to supplement the feeding scheme of the children at the school. Most learners often walk for many kilometers hungry to attend school where they receive the one and only meal of the day.
Ithuba Wild Coast Community College (Ithuba WCCC)
BENEFICIARY:
KwaNzimakwe & KwaMotoayingeni are peri urban settlements nestled west of Palm Beach & Munster.
We are collaborating with Secret Sithela to identify homesteads with willing community members to teach & install Foodscape gardens using a '7 layer plant guild' approach & natural farming principles known as "Imvelo Farming".
Each garden is meant as a demonstration site for learning & growing vegetables for children at Pastor Themba Mkhize's church feeding scheme. Community members help each other to copy the Imvelo Foodscape at further homestead sites.
KwaNzimakwe Community, Ethembeni, Kwa-Zulu Natal
BENEFICIARY:
On 22 August 2021 VukaValley was chauffeured with tools & plants to the Ganja Village for the day (near Umkomazi, West of Durban, KZN) to help Mama Peggy Nkonyeni with the Unity Garden, by installing a Vuka Foodscape Module in half a day & then be chauffeured back to HQ. Needless to say, we got back very late but when you're cool, the sun shines 24hrs a day.
Vuka Valley delivered an example of a 'Slow Food Garden Pantry' that will need very, very little attention, watering & care as it matures almost all on it's own... This is similar to a keyhole but not with raised beds. Contouring with deep, short & curved trenches to create easily repeatable, small catchment zones in a 'fishscale' pattern, each with a deep mulch pit in the center. #Yabalambileyo
Mama Peggy's Unity Garden in Umkomazi
BENEFICIARY:
