An organic food project run at the East London Industrial Development Zone (IDZ) aims to create a cleaner city while also providing healthy food.
The award-winning project, which focuses on recycling food waste to produce healthy food, has grown exponentially since it was started last March.
The project is run by a group of 25 residents from Duncan Village and Orange Grove.
It assists Buffalo City Metro’s (BCM) waste management department by taking at least one ton of organic waste for use at the site on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
The metro’s grass cuttings are also used in the compost making process and dropped off at the two-hectare field.
Speaking to the Daily Dispatch yesterday, project supervisor Zisanda Nkanjeni said it was born from a pilot project in Duncan Village in 2010.
“We saw that there was potential in the organic waste recycling because we were saving one ton a day.
“In 2013 the IDZ was interested in a greening project and we put in our proposal that we could produce an urban food gardening project that was strictly organic,” Nkanjeni said.
The profitable project now supplies some of East London’s top organic restaurants with fresh vegetables including Lavender Blue, The Market and Lime Fusion.
For disadvantaged residents of Duncan Village who cannot get to the supermarkets, a team from the site sells produce to them every Friday between 10am to 4pm.
The project won the Seed Award in 2013 in Kenya, where five other South African projects were also honoured for their role in preserving the environment.
A variety of vegetables including spinach, celery, peppers, eggplants and some herbs are grown.
“We don’t use any chemical fertilisers or pest control like they do with commercial farming. Instead we use earthworms during the compost-making process,” Nkanjeni said.
Another supervisor, Ayanda Mema, said the objective of the project was to give back to communities with the food and educate residents on turning unused spaces into gardens.
“We have adopted a school and a clinic in Orange Grove where we started a garden. When we harvest we give some food to the clinic for the patients who always say they don’t have food to eat with their treatment.
“I would say we are a bit happy with the progress but we want to teach people so that they can’t say they don’t have money to buy food when they have land they could use as gardens,” Mema said.
Interested parties are able to buy produce directly from the East London IDZ site too. — mamelag@dispatch.co.za
Organic garden a boost for BCM
The award-winning project, which focuses on recycling food waste to produce healthy food, has grown exponentially since it was started last March.
The project is run by a group of 25 residents from Duncan Village and Orange Grove.
It assists Buffalo City Metro’s (BCM) waste management department by taking at least one ton of organic waste for use at the site on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
The metro’s grass cuttings are also used in the compost making process and dropped off at the two-hectare field.
Speaking to the Daily Dispatch yesterday, project supervisor Zisanda Nkanjeni said it was born from a pilot project in Duncan Village in 2010.
“We saw that there was potential in the organic waste recycling because we were saving one ton a day.
“In 2013 the IDZ was interested in a greening project and we put in our proposal that we could produce an urban food gardening project that was strictly organic,” Nkanjeni said.
The profitable project now supplies some of East London’s top organic restaurants with fresh vegetables including Lavender Blue, The Market and Lime Fusion.
For disadvantaged residents of Duncan Village who cannot get to the supermarkets, a team from the site sells produce to them every Friday between 10am to 4pm.
The project won the Seed Award in 2013 in Kenya, where five other South African projects were also honoured for their role in preserving the environment.
A variety of vegetables including spinach, celery, peppers, eggplants and some herbs are grown.
“We don’t use any chemical fertilisers or pest control like they do with commercial farming. Instead we use earthworms during the compost-making process,” Nkanjeni said.
Another supervisor, Ayanda Mema, said the objective of the project was to give back to communities with the food and educate residents on turning unused spaces into gardens.
“We have adopted a school and a clinic in Orange Grove where we started a garden. When we harvest we give some food to the clinic for the patients who always say they don’t have food to eat with their treatment.
“I would say we are a bit happy with the progress but we want to teach people so that they can’t say they don’t have money to buy food when they have land they could use as gardens,” Mema said.
Interested parties are able to buy produce directly from the East London IDZ site too. — mamelag@dispatch.co.za
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