 
The Food Gardens Foundation was established in 1977 under the name of Food Gardens Unlimited, as a socio-economic project to teach people to help themselves by growing essential food according to sustainable organic principles. Their vision is the empowerment of people to overcome malnutrition, famine and hunger.
FGF achieves community development and social upliftment by teaching people small-scale low-cost organic Food Gardening. This is helping them to improve their health and quality of life and to escape from the grip of poverty and helplessness by achieving a high level of household food security.
The FGF method of organic gardening not only revitalises the soil but also deals with constructive recycling, energy and water saving and conservation. It also employs sustainable soil management and drought-orientated cultivation techniques. Food Gardening
FGF teaches people the principles of organic trench gardening which they term 'Food Gardening'. It makes efficient use of normal domestic and other organic waste to revitalize the soil and feed the vegetables.
Food Gardening costs between R50.00 to R80.00 per year for a family garden of four vegetable beds; and this can include the cost of a spade. Plastic shopping bags and bottles, tin cans, orange bags, cardboard cartons and newspaper all have their place in Food Gardening. It is easy to understand and not arduous to carry out; the trenchbeds last approximately five years before needing to be re-dug.
This method of gardening is environmentally friendly and safe: no pesticides or agro-chemicals are used. It is also appropriate to the limited resources available: limited space, scarce water, and little money. Food Gardening leads to the poor achieving an ongoing means of helping themselves by producing nutritious, freshly picked, organically grown vegetables. Food Gardening restores fertility to poor and arid land and can be expanded into small-scale or urban agriculture, Permaculture, or BioDynamic farming.
FGF teaches Food Gardening to a variety of individuals such as the unemployed, the disabled, the aged, the marginalized, and the poor, as well as all those who wish to upgrade their quality of life. They also teach these skills to community groups in rural and urban areas (women's organisations, welfare groups, youth group, and churches). Courses are offered as 1-day workshops and 4-5-day basic and advanced training courses.
Visit their website www.foodgardensfoundation.org.za or call them on 011 880 5956 if you'd like to find out more about the Food Gardens Foundation or would like to know how to make your own Food Garden. |
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