You cannot teach a child on an empty stomach; that is what a Gugulethu primary school is practising by ensuring that there is food for their learners.
Bonga Primary School has its own vegetable garden to ensure that the learners get a healthy meal daily.
School principal Anele Zitha described the garden as part of their school programmes.
According to him, having a garden at the school makes it easier for them to feed the learners.
“We do have a feeding scheme here where we cook for our learners. And having a garden helps us a lot because we don’t have to buy everything. Now we are able to take from our garden and cook for our learners,” said Zitha.
He brags that they are producing organic food. He adds that the surplus vegetables are sold to the staff and the community to raise funds for the school.
Zitha declared that they have someone who helps with the garden.
“Most of our learners are coming from disadvantaged communities. Some of them are coming to school without eating breakfast because there is no food. So, with the food that we are producing from the garden we are able to cook for them,” he stated, adding that the garden has been operational for nearly a decade.
Vuyo Bidi, who works in the garden, said helping people, especially the learners, is his priority. He said he starts working in the morning until the evenings.
“I come in at 08:00 for irrigation and do whatever needs to be done for the day. Some of the veggies that we have are potatoes, cabbage, beetroot, spinach, green pepper, carrot, spring onion etc,” he said.
Bidi said he enjoys being in the garden as it is something that he grew up doing. He stated that farming requires a lot of passion and patience.
“I’m worried because most young people don’t like farming. We need them to take over because we are getting old now and food is essential. They must stop underestimating agriculture,” he said.
Bidi told City Vision that most of their veggies were already harvested.
When the City Vision visited the school on Tuesday 20 September Bidi was busy planting cabbage and watering some of the vegetables.