WASTE TO FOOD PROGRAMME

Staff writer

Sep 12, 20221 min read

As a result of support from partners Call2Care and Waste-ED, as well as project funding from Old Mutual Insure, False Bay TVET College has announced the re-establishment of its waste to food programme at the Khayelitsha campus.

The college campuses are situated in economically vulnerable communities in Cape Town, and with the student population deeply affected by increased levels of poverty and unemployment, it was decided that the problems of hunger and food insecurity required an urgent response. The first attempt at a campus food garden yielded two positive harvests but funding and infrastructure challenges emerged in trying to sustain and expand the project.

Thanks to funding recently secured from Old Mutual Insure, the college is building a larger, more sustainable garden incorporating raised beds made from eco bricks and cob, an irrigation system and training. The eco bricks, sponsored by Waste-Ed, are plastic bottles stuffed with clean, non-recyclable materials. Waste-Ed also assisted with critical infrastructure such as building the garden beds, implementing a waste management and composting system, workshops for building and maintaining the garden beds, and monitoring and evaluation of the waste management systems.

According to Old Mutual Insure, the adoption of the project at False Bay TVET College will directly contribute to students’ overall well-being, improved nutrition and health, resulting in higher programme completion, retention rates and improved social and emotional behaviour. Further benefits include teaching students and staff how to prepare and develop their own organic gardens, healthy living awareness and economic sustainability by starting their own gardens to subsidise their income.