As a project coordinator for numerous food gardens in the Free State, Nelly Komape felt she couldn’t encourage the community of Parys to grow their own produce if she wasn’t doing the same. As a result, the Mmakomape Home Gardening Project was born in November 2019, with Shoprite coming on board as a partner in October 2020. Nelly, her husband and two children, together with a few other community members, operate two garden sites – one from Nelly’s home and another from a church property, both of which are supported by Shoprite. “A local priest offered us the church property to start a second garden so that people who visit the church can see first-hand the benefits of having a food garden. There, we’ve grown spinach, onions, chillies, tomatoes, pumpkin, mielies, cabbage, carrots, ochre and beetroot,” says Nelly proudly. In recognition of their hunger relief efforts, Shoprite is assisting Mmakomape Home Gardening with 18 months of training, gardening tools, seedlings, compost and an irrigation system on the church site. “We’ve gained so much through the sponsorship, including training workshops on permaculture, garden design and pest and weed control.” “We are now even making our own compost, which will be ready for use later this year. We also know more about raised beds and even understand how intercropping works,” says Nelly. The fresh organic produce from these two gardens has helped provide a lifeline for disadvantaged community members and children at a local crèche during the extreme hardships experienced in 2020. Nelly is now also selling produce to reinvest in her food gardens to continue supporting families in the area. One of the things Nelly is most excited about is the water tank her project will be receiving from Shoprite. “We struggle with water in Parys. I currently go out and source water from a local well with 25-litre buckets around three times a day,” she explains. Having grown up on a farm, Nelly has always had a passion for produce: “It was my family’s hectares of maize meal, pumpkin and beans that helped to educate me.” “Those crops paid for my schooling and university education.” She dreams of sharing this passion by one day expanding Mmakomape Home Gardening to open a farming academy and educate future generations about the relationship between food gardens and food security. 
