ELSIES RIVER YOUTHS FEED THE FUTURE

by Robyn Carstens, robync@elsenburg.com

At the beginning of South Africa’s COVID-19 lockdown, when poverty hit the country harder than ever, two brothers from Elsies River inspired hope by planting a food garden – rooting out some social ills of a community with high levels of crime, gangsterism, and unemployment.

With two spades and a few seeds, Geronimo and Valentino de Klerk replaced a dumping site in the backyard of the Trinity Place Court flats D1–12 with their Feed the Future garden.

The space is now flourishing, and the fruit and vegetables harvested there provide much-needed sustenance for those who do not have an income to buy food. The brothers also support feeding projects in and around Elsies River.

Another advantage for the community is that the wall built to enclose the garden now also protects the community from criminals who previously used the open space as an easy smash-and-grab escape route. Some young people volunteering in the garden are rehabilitated themselves.

A strong collaboration with Cape Townbased NGO Reconstructed Living Labs (RLabs) further assists the youth volunteering in the garden to earn Zlto rewards. Zlto is RLabs’ initiative to get young people involved in their communities as a stepping stone towards employment. The rewards they earn allow them to buy vouchers for airtime, groceries, clothing, bus tickets, and electricity.

The programme Agricultural Producer Support and Development (APSD) (formerly known as Farmer Support and Development) of the Western Cape Department of Agriculture (WCDoA) recognised the food security efforts made by these young citizens and invited the Western Cape Minister of Agriculture, Dr Ivan Meyer, to visit the youths’ garden in recognition of their exceptional intervention.

The purpose of the visit was to strengthen the work of the youth team and to help them to maximise their potential. So far, the team has already replicated the food garden at schools and other organisations.

To this end, the minister said he cannot merely make a speech and leave. Instead, Minister Meyer made the following commitments to the team: aligned with our priorities of jobs, safety, and dignity”, said Meyer.

1) They will be invited to the Elsenburg Agricultural Training Institute to expose them to careers and development opportunities in agriculture.

2) As soon as the COVID-19 pandemic allows it, they will be invited to parliament as their story must be heard.

3) Their story will be published in the next issue of AgriProbe.

Geronimo said: “We had a feeding scheme running daily and even my mother was cooking the food and it was nice vegetable food. We bought electricity from our Zlto vouchers to sustain ourselves in the short term, but this is a long-term process. We planted some fruit trees to show that this is not a short-term but a long-term initiative”.

“Food gardens allow households to produce enough food to meet their basic food needs. I want to applaud these youths for uplifting others in their community through a programme that contributes to sustainable food security. I am proud that the youth food garden programme is

De Klerk’s words affirmed that the Feed the Future garden project is in line with the WCDoA’s priorities, and what they do is to improve the livelihood of the people around them. This is a fine example of active citizenship and the WCDoA supported it by contributing gardening equipment, seeds, fertiliser, wheelbarrows, compost, and a 10 000- ℓ water tank for water harvesting from the roof.

There is a lot more that can be expected from this duo as they make agriculture their solution. The WCDoA is excited to see more youth taking action to help make the province more self-sufficient with regard to food.

#ForTheLoveOfAgriculture