Moshi, TZ – Community Update – Kahe – 20 Dec 2013

The Tupendane garden shop’s long term goal is to help families in Kahe become food self-sufficient, so that they can provide their children with the food they need if they are to grow up healthy and educated.  Until most families are in that position, the shop’s short term goal is to help schools provide students with an adequate breakfast and lunch.

A member of the GMM family inspecting beautiful rows of vegetables.

To help achieve both these goals the shop is helping establish vegetable gardens at primary schools in Kahe for two reasons.  First, the gardens can help make students and their families aware of the benefits the gardens offer, and how they can grow their own organic vegetables.  Second, vegetables from the gardens can be prepared in the schools’ kitchens for the students’ meals.

To help the schools, local mamas have been hired to oversee the gardening program at the schools.  These school garden mamas have been hard at work collaborating with each other, and with the shop’s team, to care for the school gardens and help students’ families build gardens of their own.

As Kahe families start their own gardens they will become food self-sufficient and also able to contribute vegetables or funds towards the school meals.  Eventually, the hope is that the schools will no longer require assistance from outside the community to fill the children’s bellies, so that the children can concentrate on their lessons instead of being distracted by their hungry tummies.

The vegetable garden program in Kahe, which is facilitated by the Tupendane shop, is the largest and fastest growing Better Lives vegetable garden program in Tanzania.  The shop has recently increased the number of new gardens it builds to three gardens every two weeks.  Successful expansion to this level is only possible with an organized shop team and a helpful community.  Fortunately, Kahe has both.

It is a considerable amount of work to build a new garden.  However, neighbors have been volunteering to help each other, so people are now working together to plant gardens quicker.  Neighbors are also helping each other by passing on best practices and encouraging each other by maintaining well organized and productive gardens.

The ZPM family has kept a very orderly garden and it is paying off.

The shop hopes that continuing hard work by the families, school mamas and community, along with support from the shop team, will eventually enable the schools to reach the short term goal of providing breakfast and lunch without outside assistance, and also enable the children’s families to achieve the long term goal of food self-reliance.