Khabazela Village veg garden roots out food insecurity

WHEN he started out sowing the seeds for change last year, Khabazela Village resident and community leader, Dumile Magaqa, had no idea how the project would take root and flourish.

Magaqa, with the support of NPO’s Singakwazi Aid, The Seed Fund and Mission Thando, used a small plot of land next to the village’s soup kitchen container to begin planting various vegetables as a way to promote food security.

The vegetable garden has already begun yielding results with the aim of supporting the area’s soup kitchen which feeds more than 100 children and families.

Read also: Ready, steady, start…planting spring veggies

In order to create sustainability, Magaqa, the soup kitchen founder along with volunteers also sell vegetables to the community to raise funds for those in need.

In a short space of time, volunteers have planted cabbage, lettuce, potatoes, onions, green beans, spinach and amadumbe.

“A few Durban North residents got involved and showed me how to sow the seeds. Initially the lettuce and spinach in particular grew well and. through research and watching videos on Google, we’ve been able to plant an array of vegetables. We are really grateful to have this project up-and-running as it helps support our soup kitchen when we need to buy items like oil and gas. We feed the children and families out of an old shipping container where we store our food,” he explained.