ZUZUMQHELE High School in KwaMakhutha is one of a number of schools in the province and countrywide, which will receive trees from a supermarket chain to celebrate Arbour Week, from Tuesday to Monday, 1 to 7 September.
Checkers aims to plant over 1,500 trees in schools and communities around the country, offsetting more than 553,5 tons of carbon.
National Arbor Week is an opportune time for all South Africans to plant indigenous trees as a practical and symbolic gesture of sustainable environmental management. This year Checkers is again teaming up with social and environmental enterprise, Food and Trees for Africa, to donate indigenous trees to 27 disadvantaged schools and community groups during Spring. Their green programme, Trees for All, aims to educate and transform schools and other community centres into healthier, more sustainable environments.
The supermarket chain wants to inspire customers to share their own #CheckersArborWeek greenification efforts on social media during Arbor Week and have it matched with a tree planted in their honour as well as stand a chance to win a donation of 20 trees to a school of their choice.
With their Arbor Week initiatives, Checkers hopes to assist in beautifying the environment, while giving schools a sense of pride and teaching the youth to be more ecologically conscious. Indigenous trees help reduce air pollution, provide shelter and food for wildlife, protect the soil in barren areas, promote biodiversity and are cost effective to maintain as they don’t require fertilising.
This year’s tree donations include spekboom, yellowwood, white stinkwood, stinkwood, acacia, pompon tree, bushwillow, lavender and wild olive trees. More than 80% of the trees planted during Checkers’ 2014 Arbor Week initiative are still contributing towards a greener environment.
