Teaching the nation how to feed themselves - Self-sustainability to schools and communities across South Africa
|Published
Learners tend to their crops. Teachers remarked that learners are arriving at school earlier to tend to the veggie gardens. Picture: Supplied.
Johannesburg - “If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.”
This proverb could not be more true for a partnership between snack giant, Mondelēz International and Inmed South Africa, which are taking the idea of self-sustainability to schools and communities across the country.
Inmed is tackling SA’s public health crisis of obesity and malnutrition through its school-based programme that empowers children and their teachers to become agents of change in their families and communities. Called Health in Action, the programme is reaching more than 100 000 primary school children in 116 schools in 13 at-risk communities in Johannesburg and Gqeberha.
Supported by the Mondelēz International Foundation, the programme focuses on educational messages about nutrition, physical activity and healthy lifestyles through hands-on, skills-based activities and training, including the development of school gardens that provide nutritious, fresh produce for school meals.
Programme director at Inmed SA, Unathi Sihlahla believes nutrition must be part of the school curriculum.
“The same must be for physical activity. We have trained school leavers who are involved with sporting activities with children and even addressing issues like bullying. We are sitting with a ticking time bomb. Children can influence what they eat at home,” he said.
Corporate and government affairs lead for Sub-Sahara Africa at Mondelēz International, Navisha Bechan-Sewkuran said that through their mindful snacking campaign they hope to teach young children about the importance of nutrition in their holistic development.
“This is not just about your physical well-being but to teach children about a healthy lifestyle and to help with access to nutritional foods,” she said.
Inmed’s Adaptive Agriculture Programme focuses on achieving food security and sustainable economic development in disadvantaged communities. A key component of this programme is aquaponics, an innovative and highly intensive food production technique combining aquaculture (fish farming) with hydroponics (soil-less crop growing) in a closed system that is at least 10 times as productive as equivalently sized plots that are farmed traditionally.
Aquaponics requires no chemical fertilisers or pesticides and utilises 85-90% less water than traditional irrigation. Inmed has installed several commercial-sized aquaponic systems for schools and large farming cooperatives, as well as family-sized units, which yield enough produce and fish to provide for a family’s nutritional needs with surplus to sell for additional income.
The company’s website states: “The pioneers who have installed and maintained these systems in South Africa have realised a multitude of life-changing benefits. One remote farm co-op using an Inmed system increased its monthly income by 300%, allowing the group to expand its farming operation to include lucrative livestock. Our team in South Africa is seeking to expand its aquaponics initiative and is working with local banks and provincial governments to provide more opportunities for subsistence farmers and families to enter the aquaponics business.”
At the heart of all Inmed programmes are socio-economic and enterprise development principles that address high levels of unemployment, poverty, inequality and skills shortages.
“Schools in disadvantaged communities are increasingly turning to aquaponics to provide more nutritious meals for students, serve as an educational resource and generate income for school operations. Carel de Wet Technical High School in Vanderbijlpark was the first recipient of an Inmed commercial aquaponic system in South Africa.
Sponsored by Air Products, this system has produced fresh food and income for the school since 2012. Grade 10 learners who opt to take agriculture as a matric subject are trained by Inmed staff on the system and receive certificates of expertise when they pass a final exam.
The message rang clearly for Belinda Moonsammy, a food preparer at Malabar Primary School in Port Elizabeth, who said: “It’s the first time ever that we received training on meal planning and healthy lifestyles. We’ll make sure that we impart knowledge gained as we prepare meals for learners, both in schools and at our homes.”
Patience Maponyane, an educator at Reshomile Primary School in Diepsloot, said they have noted a marked increase in the academic performance of their learners since their nutrition programme started.
“Some children don’t have space at home but they are very involved in the veggie gardens at school. In fact, when I arrive at school, they are already there, watering the veggie gardens. They now know how to grow veggies,” she said.
Principal at Diepsloot 4 Primary School, Joe Makhafola said that while it was initially a struggle to get their learners to eat vegetables, no plates are left full anymore.
“We teach them what veggies can do for their bodies. We have also not had a single break-in at our school because we have the buy-in of the entire community. Just Last week our learners sold three boxes of green peppers from our garden. The mindset of learners has really changed,” he said.
The Mondelēz International and Inmed South Africa partnership is active in Diepsloot, Soweto, Cosmo City, Orange Farm, Motherwell in Gqeberha and farm schools in the Eastern Cape.