The Woolworths Trust EduPlant has launched its 2007 programme with a series of free, empowering workshops that will help educators to create food-rich, sustainable environments at schools.
Coordinated by Food and Trees For Africa, Woolworths Trust EduPlant — with the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry, LandCare SA and SABC Education — is offering a programme that promotes and supports schools to grow good food, using resource-efficient permaculture techniques.
Through their participation in EduPlant, hundred of schools across the country became champions of community development, promoting food security, improved nutrition and self-reliance.
Last year more than 380 schools participated in the Woolworths Trust EduPlant programme. Each year Woolworths Trust EduPlant starts out by holding free one-day workshops in all provinces. All interested educators are encouraged to attend.
The workshops involve group interaction and educators learn about world-renowned permaculture ethics and techniques. Permaculture is environmentally-friendly gardening and farming; it is design-driven to mirror the healthy patterns of nature’s own ecosystems.
Workshop topics include water harvesting, soil improvement, natural resource mapping, recycling design, as well as how to involve learners in the school’s living, learning laboratory. Teachers are encouraged to enter their school gardens into the annual Woolworths Trust EduPlant competition.
A key aspect of the programme is that it gives people the knowledge and skills to grow their own good food, to comprehend the interdependence of natural systems, to care for their environment and to share food gardening expertise with their communities. Many of the educators who participate in the programme become ‘champions” of food security in their communities by teaching other schools and community groups how to grow their own permaculture gardens.
The schools become hubs of environmental awareness, sustainable living and nutritional knowledge, as well as resources of good food. They play an important role in promoting self-reliance and home-grown sustainable development, increasing their community’s confidence and capacity to drive development.
Woolworths Trust has confirmed it will continue as the major sponsor to 2010. Chairman Brian Frost said: ‘Long-term commitment is important to sustain a programme, such as EduPlant, where the benefits to schools accrue year after year. At the entry level Woolworths Trust EduPlant helps schools to improve the nutrition of hungry learners and to enhance and protect the school’s physical environment. However, the benefits of EduPlant are far-reaching and ever-increasing.”
If you would like to be part of this programme, contact Joanne Rolt on (011) 8039750 or email [email protected]