FOR several years, the Miss Earth South Africa Head Office in Ridgeway have done ‘guerilla gardening’ in and around their immediate community.
“The idea being that a neighbour should be able to walk down the street and collect fresh spinach, straight from the plant, an onion, or chillies and herbs for their stew – the extra charm being that you could pick a fruit for your child’s lunch,” said Ella Bella.
“The objective being that people should engage both with the physical environment and the natural environment. That created interaction, awareness of crime and security in the area, a spirit of sharing and getting to know one another. At the same time, it illustrated that fresh produce can be grown by each family. Simultaneously, one is creating a renewed value of community and interdependence.
“It is with great excitement that our office has received a generous sponsorship from Nedbank -which will allow for a vegetable tunnel to be placed on site, ensuring that the organisation is more sustainable in their production, whilst being able to distribute directly to the community, home centres and facilities in the area.”
Bella welcomed everyone for coming to the launch of the vegetable tunnel and gave thanks to Nedbank: “Now we’ll be able to pay forward by giving fresh produce grown in the tunnel to charities in need. We’ve identified two charities who’ll receive fresh produce from us and hopefully in time, we’ll be able to provide for more charities.
“This is the eighth vegetable tunnel we’ve done with Nedbank. The first was at Mondeor Primary School, where 15 charities come and collect vegetables for their use. The school children look forward every day to their time in the veggie garden; and it has been wonderful to see them enjoying that little safe haven and working in the garden,” explained Bella.
Catherine Constantinides went on to add, “This is another wonderful milestone for us at Earth House and we are very excited to have received this sponsorship from Nedbank. Having you all with us today to share the erection of the vegetable tunnel, is indeed an honour for us. Many of you have walked the journey with us and to celebrate another year of environmental education through the Miss Earth South Africa Leadership programme is amazing.”
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