How communities grow hope through food gardens to combat hunger

For many families in Mpophomeni township outside Howick, KwaZulu-Natal, the hardest question each day is not what to cook for dinner but whether there will be enough food to put on the table.

With unemployment remaining high, many households are surviving on social grants, temporary jobs and support from community organisations. For some families, food parcels and cooked meals have become a lifeline during difficult times.

Every week, residents arrive at the offices of non-profit organisation Funda Nenja hoping to receive a food parcel, fresh vegetables or a hot meal. But with limited resources, the organisation is unable to assist everyone and has to conduct home visits and assessments to identify families facing the greatest need.

Social auxiliary worker at Funda Nenja, Zinhle Msimango, said unemployment remains one of the biggest challenges facing the township, leaving many families dependent on government grants or with no income at all.

“For the past 17 years, the organisation has worked to improve the wellbeing of both people and animals. We’ve witnessed how this problem leads to many other social ills,” she said.

The organisation supports vulnerable families through food assistance programmes, including freshly cooked meals twice a week, food parcels and fresh produce.

We have tried to implement a ‘one home, one garden’ project to sustain better and healthier food supply

—  Zinhle Msimango, social auxiliary worker at Funda Nenja

The parcels are made possible through food donations from organisations such as Gift of the Givers, local supermarkets and other donors. They usually include basic necessities such as rice, mielie meal, porridge, powdered milk, tea, sugar, dry beans, samp, cooking oil and macaroni.

Home gardens are another initiative they are piloting, with vegetable seed donations assisting in this project.

“We have tried to implement a ‘one home, one garden’ project to sustain better and healthier food supply,” said Msimango.

Food insecurity tied to broader social issues

The organisation says food insecurity is closely linked to wider social challenges affecting the community, particularly among young people.

Many young people finish matric but are unable to continue with further education because of financial challenges. Others leave school early due to teenage pregnancy, substance abuse and other social issues, making it harder for them to gain skills needed to find employment.

This has contributed to many young adults between the ages of 18 and 35 struggling to become economically active, while some children are left in the care of grandparents due to the loss of parents or financial hardship.

Msimango said the challenges also affect older residents who spent years relying on temporary work instead of permanent employment.

“There are people between the ages of 35 and pension age who were never permanently employed and survived through piece jobs and social grants,” she said.

For many of the families it supports, the assistance means more than simply putting food on the table. It offers dignity, hope and a measure of relief in a community where poverty continues to fuel hunger.

Successful gardens require committed local champions, secure access to land and water, proper training, ongoing mentoring and free inputs such as seedlings and compost

—  Andy du Plessis, FoodForward SA managing director

For 50-year-old Zanele Mchunu, being unemployed was a reality shaped by circumstances at home.

Mchunu lives with her two children, Sinethemba, 24, and Velasimthande, 10.

She said she stopped working after meeting her husband, who works as a carpenter, in 2008 because he did not want her to have a job. “When my husband and I met, I was working as a poultry farm worker. He said he does not like a woman who works, so I stopped working,” she said.

Through Funda Nenja, Mchunu was given an opportunity to take part in handwork, helping her develop skills that have kept her occupied and created a small source of income.

Mchunu makes a variety of products, including crocheted carpets, homemade jam, butternut juice, atchar and chilli paste. When there are events in the community, she sells her products to residents to make extra income.

For Mchunu, the work she does is about more than earning money: it gives her a sense of purpose while she continues to support her family during difficult economic times.

Community gardens’ potential for transformation

Andy du Plessis, managing director of FoodForward SA, believes community gardens can make a meaningful difference when they are properly supported.

“Community gardens can become a powerful transformational tool when implemented and managed correctly,” he said.

However, he warned that many gardens disappear within six months because communities are often left to fend for themselves after receiving initial funding or equipment.

“Successful gardens require committed local champions, secure access to land and water, proper training, ongoing mentoring and free inputs such as seedlings and compost,” du Plessis said.

He said when communities see gardens producing food and creating livelihoods, they are more likely to protect and sustain them.

One project demonstrating what long-term support can achieve is the Zero Waste Association of South Africa’s (Zwasa) farm outside Bredasdorp in the Western Cape.

The South African food system is broken. Community gardens are a plaster, a band aid, that turns attention away from the systemic drivers of an inequitable and poorly functioning food system, where the poor continue to suffer the consequences.”

—  Prof Ralph Hamann, UCT Graduate School of Business

Food waste from about 800 households is collected, sorted and composted before being returned to the soil to grow vegetables just metres away. The produce is then sold within the local community, creating a circular system that reduces waste while producing fresh food.

For farm manager Anine Swart, the project is about much more than growing vegetables. “More communities should have access to gardens like this because when people have healthy food, they have a healthier life,” she said.

While projects such as Funda Nenja and Zwasa are helping communities put food on the table, Prof Ralph Hamann from the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business believes they should not distract from the deeper causes of hunger.

“What we have in South Africa is a systemic issue, one where we face generations of marginalisation and exclusion,” he said.

“To ask the poor, those who have been marginalised and dispossessed of their land, to now solve an institutionalised issue, one largely as a result of government failure and corporate consolidation, through their own endeavour and hard work, is unjust.

“The South African food system is broken. Community gardens are a plaster, a band aid, that turns attention away from the systemic drivers of an inequitable and poorly functioning food system, where the poor continue to suffer the consequences.”

Hamann said community gardens have a role to play, but they cannot replace policies that address unemployment, inequality and the failures within South Africa’s food system.

He argued that local government has a constitutional responsibility to provide healthy, clean neighbourhoods, including effective waste management, and should be held accountable for creating conditions that support food security.

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