A Vegetable Gardening Project Limpopo Ensures That Children Are Fed Nutritious Meals

This Limpopo vegetable garden ensures that children are fed nutritious meals daily with the help of grocery giant, Shoprite.

In a statement released by Shoprite, the company stated that over 170 children receive cooked meals in Mulima, the north of Limpopo, prepared by staff (mainly caregivers) at its Orphan and Vulnerable Children (OVC) centre which is being run by the St. Scholastica School.

The project received extra children after the Covid-19 pandemic hit even the most vulnerable organisations globally, prompting the St. Scholastica School to reach out to companies like Shoprite for assistance – how to garden as the caregivers didn’t have prior vegetable growing experience.

“Our OVC centre at the school was hit hard by Covid because the lockdown meant that the OVCs weren’t getting that one meal a day that they relied on,” said Chris Babona, manager of the OVC centre and creche at the St Scholastica School.

Babona went on to say, “We had to devise a strategy during lockdown to assist the OVCs. We also had to assist those families who had become impoverished after the breadwinners lost their jobs in Johannesburg and had to return home.”

He stated that the school barely manages to supply meals for the centres.

“We barely manage to provide for our OVCs, the children in the creche, and the learners at school, and now we have to assist even more families.”

“It’s been tough,” Babona added.

Babona and the OVC caretakers established the school’s food garden in 2013 to complement the food boxes they provided to OVCs and children from underprivileged homes.

Mulima has an unemployment rate of more than 60%, and many families are in need.

“We didn’t really know how to garden or grow vegetables, so last year we asked Shoprite for support with the garden because the school had given us land, but we weren’t using it properly,” he explained.

“The Shoprite Group is committed to fighting hunger in South Africa, having partnered with 119 community food gardens and 475 home gardens since 2015, benefiting over 28 000 people,” the group stated.

Editor’s note: This initiative, which covers most parts of the Sol Plaatje Municipal, also employed 3 women who help produce dignity packs, enhancing youth employment and economic empowerment in the area.

Description: Grocery giant, Shoprite, helps a group of community builders care for a vegetable garden that feeds over 170 children in Mulima, the north of Limpopo. Once the vegetables have  grown,  caregivers at St. Scholastica School’s Orphan and Vulnerable Children centre prepare meals which are then given to the children.

Editor: Thato Mahlangu

Project manager: Do4SA