Eduplant call for entries february 2016

PRESS RELEASE FEBRUARY 2016 SCHOOLS URGED TO ENTER COMPETITION CELEBRATING ABUNDANT FOOD GARDENS & CLIMATE RESILIENCE __________________________________________________________________________________ EduPlant begins the year with five one-day workshops in each province, 45 workshops that will reach thousands of people. These are supplemented by 252 training days nationally. Sponsored

by Woolworths, these fun edu-workshops aim to provide educators and community members with tangible ways to support the estimated 40% of learners who are undernourished and therefore unable to learn properly.

For the learners, educators and community members who attend these workshops, poverty and unemployment are mitigated as they gain valuable skills that use local and available resources to transform dust bowls into food forests.

All schools should enter the EduPlant competition as they can win funding, training, planting resources and a chance to present the Story of their Food Garden at the EduPlant Finals in Gauteng in Oct 2016.This EduPlant Finals event is one week of Edu-entertainment, accommodation and travel all paid for. Entries close on the 31st of May 2016. Supported by the EduPlant Cluster Programme taking place around the country schools are provided a crash course in permaculture.

See the online workshop schedule for your province: http://www.trees.co.za/programmes/eduplant.html Here are a few ideas for schools to start their planning: Permaculture means working smart, rather than hard: Always create a base-map so that you put the gate, water, seedlings and beds in the right place to begin with.

WHY: Climate change is a serious risk to vulnerable communities and this was recently highlighted in November 2015 at the COP21 in Paris; where over 100 heads of government came together to talk about how to take better care of our planet. These mitigation methods are being addressed by South Africa’s leading permaculture initiative, The EduPlant Programme. Severe weather events, such as those experienced in late summer this year, can destroy crops and lead to hunger and famine. Schools that apply Permaculture principles are better able to withstand such events and maintain food security, and help to prevent debilitating nutritional deficiencies such as kwashiorkor.

For two decades the EduPlant team has supported the development of sustainable food gardens and greening. EduPlant has helped schools and their surrounding communities to create abundant gardens with year-round harvests using permaculture practices. “EduPlant, initiated in 1994, is part of Food & Trees for Africa’s solution to global climate change and food security. We are now calling on schools to submit their entries into this year’s competition, to share with us their innovations and achievements in their school food gardens,” says Robyn Hills, FTFA Programme Manager.

The Woolworths Trust supports the EduPlant programme in order to build robust communities.

“Food security is an imperative in a developing economy such as ours and that is why we have supported EduPlant for the last 13 years,” says Zinzi Mgolodela Head of Transformation at Woolworths. “It is important that from an early age, children learn about sustainable living so that they adopt these practices as integral to daily life. We have made a long-term commitment to support

the emergence of sustainable food systems, and through our educational programmes, we hope to integrate these learnings into the school curriculum,” says Mgolodela. Part of the incentive to encourage schools to excel is the biennial EduPlant competition and entries for 2016 are closing at the end of May. “We are very excited to see this year’s entries,” says Tshepiso Senetla, EduPlant coordinator. “Last year we focussed on imparting valuable in-depth permaculture so we are anticipating a higher standard this year, resulting in greater food security at the schools. Over the past 6 years we have seen the impact and value of schools learning from each other at the finals event .”

The winners of this year’s competition will also be able to send one educator on a two-week course that will provide vital skills to build on their schools’ successes and enable them to cascade their skills to the surrounding community. 60 finalist schools stand to win a total of R 275 000 in cash prizes as well as tools and educational resources.

The entry form can be downloaded at http://www.trees.co.za/programmes/eduplant.

Follow the progress of EduPlant schools on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/EduPlant or twitter @EduPlantSA.

EduPlant is a permaculture food gardening and greening programme initiated and run by Food & Trees for Africa which teaches schools how to cultivate their own food in an ecologically sustainable manner.

Through permaculture techniques, communities are recognising the value of recycling waste, creating their own compost and employing biological agents in place of harmful pesticides and fertilisers. The programme has provided improved nutrition for thousands of learners across the country, enabling them to perform better at their studies and generate an income source for unemployed parents through the sale of additional produce.

EduPlant has been operating across South Africa for the past 19 years and is currently funded by The Woolworths Trust. It comprises of one day and cluster workshops for schools, a biennial competition, the delivery of educational materials to schools, connecting schools to each other for support and more. The competition has four categories: Mentoring Schools (schools that have excelled and are now assisting others in their area to develop and maintain food gardens), Advanced (those that have entered and won the competition previously and are excelling), Intermediate (schools that have entered the competition but not won) and Emerging (those schools that are new to EduPlant).

Woolworths on CSI – The Woolworths Trust was formed in 2003 to co-ordinate activities undertaken by Woolworths to give back to South African communities. Woolworths have carefully chosen a few priority areas which they believe are national priorities and where they can make a difference. Woolworths uses their relationship with other corporates to sustain and further improve the impact of this work. The focus is on food security, vulnerable children and education. Through Woolworths’ support for the EduPlant program, they have supported food gardens which provide food and nutrition for schools and local communities.