A local community food garden, known as Phahamang Basadi Community garden, will be selling their fresh veggies directly to the public at Shoprite and Checkers’ Market Day on 12 October.
Market Day was first introduced in 2017 to extend the support of the many community food gardens Shoprite and Checkers partner with.
Emerging farmers from over 40 community food gardens across the country will be participating in the upcoming Shoprite and Checkers’ Market Day.
“We’re very excited to witness how Market Day keeps growing, with increased participation from community gardens. Since its launch in 2017, Market Day serves as an opportunity for small-scale food gardens to sell their fresh and organically grown produce directly to the public at selected Shoprite and Checkers supermarkets, and to gain invaluable retail experience in the process,” says Sanjeev Raghubir, Sustainability Manager at the Shoprite Group.
“The contribution of these emerging farmers goes beyond just supplying food. It is a step towards nurturing more resilient communities,” Raghubir continues.
The Shoprite Group supports more than 220 food gardens – covering more than 4.5 million m2 – and over 3 750 home gardens, indirectly impacting 61 064 beneficiaries. The retailer’s garden programme has provided 2 580 community members with training over the past year and has supplied more than 1 million meals since inception.
Phahamang Basadi Community garden can be supported on Market Day,Thursday, 12 October at Checkers.
More about Phahamang Basadi
Started by five local women from the Tumahole township on the outskirts of Parys, Phahamang Basadi food garden has been providing fresh and affordable vegetables to the community since 2017.
The garden has been a real game-changer for the people of Tumahole as they no longer have to spend money on travelling long distances to stock up on healthy food.
As is the case with most good things, however, getting Phahamang Basadi to where it is today, has been no mean feat. Fortunately, with the support of Shoprite and a team of strong, dedicated women driving the project, none of the challenges was too big to overcome.
According to the founder, Meriam Mokgatla, the women visited a variety of institutions – including schools and a local clinic – to present their proposal of using a patch of ground to create a garden that could help feed the community. They were turned down time and again but never gave up hope.
They finally ended up at Boitlamo Secondary School, which allowed them to use part of the property for the garden.
“We needed a tractor to clean up the land so we could start planting but, when we couldn’t find one, we decided to clean the place on our own,” recalls Mokgatla.
Two years later and, against all the odds, the women’s hard work paid off – a true testament to the dedication and perseverance of the women running the garden.
Phahamang Basadi participated in Market Day at Checkers Parys in April 2019 for the first time.
