Many learners at Greenlands Primary School in Bishop Lavis don’t have enough to eat. But earlier this year, the school got in touch with Shoprite to see if something could be done.

The result: a food garden on the school premises, courtesy of the supermarket chain and edible garden service Urban Harvest. Created to produce sustainable food for the students and the surrounding community, the garden celebrated its first harvest on October 21.

“We’ve got a poor community and we need[ed] some help,” says Greenlands principal Kathleen Highburg. “We sent out letters to a lot of companies for support to help our learners. Shoprite got back to us and offered to build a garden. This is help for us in an ongoing way, if we take care of our garden.”

With guidance from Shoprite and Urban Harvest, the school’s governing body and students took a piece of barren ground and turned it into a striking 600m2 garden capable of producing four tons of food per year. It houses 20 different types of herbs and vegetables, including turnips, beetroot, rosemary and lavender. Urban harvest has also appointed a garden committee, which will take care of the garden’s general maintenance, along with help from the students.

“[Urban Harvest] taught me how to clean the garden,” says Denver Wessels, a local resident who now serves as Greenlands Primary’s garden champion. “After that I could do it myself. Now the garden is my garden and I must look after it like my sons and daughters – but I’m proud of it because what’s coming out is for the children so they can have fresh food from the garden every day.”

Another of the garden’s benefits is that it enhances the students’ educational experience.

“I feel nice. I’m so glad to have a garden”

“In addition to the much-needed fresh herbs and vegetables produced by the food garden, it is also a wonderful tool for our learners to reference in their existing curriculum – from the different kinds of produce to the science of growing food,” said Highburg.

There are questions regarding how to keep the garden secure – particularly after hours – given that it is, in many ways, a plentiful site. But Highburg is confident that Greenland Primary will triumph.

“Security is a concern,” she says. “But our garden champion lives opposite the school and the police also patrol here at night.”

And she’s certainly not alone in looking forward to the future.

“I feel nice. I’m so glad to have a garden,” says six-year-old Greenlands Primary School student Blaise Stuurman.